An American woman has accused Ronaldo of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. Photo / Photosport
An American woman has accused Ronaldo of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. Photo / Photosport
Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has furiously branded rape allegations against him as "fake news".
The former Manchester United player spoke out in a video on Instagram just hours after an American model filed court documents accusing him of violently assaulting her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
Grinning into the camera, the Portuguese international dismissed the bombshell allegations, saying: "No, no, no, no, no. What they said today? Fake, fake news.
"They want to promote [themselves by using] my name. It's normal. They want to be famous to say my name, but it is part of the job. I am a happy man and all good."
Kathryn Mayorga, a 34-year-old teacher who was an aspiring model at the time of the alleged assault, claims Ronaldo raped her in a bathroom at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in the early hours of June 13, 2009.
The pair had met at Rain nightclub at the Palms, where Ronaldo was staying on holiday. Pictures show Ronaldo and Ms Mayorga together at the club. In one intimate moment he clasps her hand while whispering into her ear.
According to documents filed at Clark County District Court on Friday, the footballer, who now plays for Italian giants Juventus, invited Ms Mayorga and a friend to his penthouse suite "to enjoy the view of the Las Vegas Strip".
Ms Mayorga claims she refused to get into his hot tub because she did not want to ruin her dress, then Ronaldo offered her some shorts and a T-shirt and pointed her towards a bathroom where she could change.
The court documents state that as she was changing, Ronaldo entered the bathroom, exposed himself and asked her to perform a sex act.
The Portugese footballer smiled in a video on his Instagram as he told fans the rape accusations were fake news. Photo / Instagram
The documents add: "The plaintiff [Ms Mayorga] refused and stated she wanted to leave the hotel suite. Upon leaving the bathroom, Ronaldo pulled the plaintiff into a bedroom and on to a bed and attempted to engage in sexual intercourse. Plaintiff refused… and covered herself in an attempt to prevent sexual penetration."
According to the papers, the striker then turned Ms Mayorga on to her side, and that even though she was screaming "no, no, no!", she was raped by the star.
The documents claim the footballer confirmed the pair had sex but said it was consensual.
Ms Mayorga alleges she reported the incident to Las Vegas police later that day and went to hospital where evidence of the alleged rape was documented and photographed.
She later hired a lawyer, and in 2010 negotiated a £287,000 out-of-court settlement. As part of that deal, she agreed never to go public with her allegations.
But the new claim seeks to overturn that settlement, which she says she only signed because she was "terrified of retaliation" from Ronaldo and of "being publicly humiliated by being identified as a victim of sexual assault".
She says she has been left traumatised by the incident and has now gone public, in part because of the #MeToo movement in which women have shared their tales of abuse.
Ronaldo, 33, claimed Ms Mayorga's injuries were caused by another person.
Court papers quote alleged correspondence between Ronaldo's legal team, in which an unnamed person writes the financial settlement with Ms Mayorga is "incredibly favourable" and resulted in her not pursing a criminal case "which could have resulted in Cristiano Ronaldo being imprisoned for a life sentence for sexual assault".
Ms Mayorga is suing for damages which could run into millions of dollars. But Ronaldo's lawyers have vowed to sue German magazine Der Spiegel, which originally reported Ms Mayorga's claims, saying the "blatantly illegal" story "violates the personal rights of our client in an exceptionally serious way".
