A model-turned-teacher in Las Vegas has come forward with accusations against football giant Cristiano Ronaldo for allegedly raping her in a hotel in 2009. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Kathryn Mayorga claimed that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner assaulted her in his Palms Casino Resort suite while the two were partying with others.
According to the report, Mayorga says that she and her friend joined Ronaldo and his friends to party in Ronaldo’s penthouse. He invited her into the hot tub but Mayorga declined. When she went to the bathroom to change, Mayorga told the magazine that Ronaldo flashed himself and demanded that she touch his penis.
She told Der Spiegel:
“He starts to come on to me very strong. And he starts to do stuff to me and touch me and grab me and go down on me. I pushed him away and kept saying ‘No.'”
Mayorga claims that Ronaldo then kissed her, pulled her into a room and raped her anally without a condom. According to the report, Mayorga said,
“After he assaulted me, he wouldn’t let me leave again. He wouldn’t let me leave. And he was calling me ‘baby, baby.'”
Mayorga reported the incident to the police in Las Vegas the next day and eventually reached an out-of-court settlement between the two parties. Ronaldo agreed to pay Mayorga $375,000 and she signed a non-disclosure agreement. But now, Mayorga is looking for ways to make the settlement void. According to Deadspin, Mayorga ‘felt empowered by the Me Too movement and other women’s bravery in naming and standing up to their assailants in sexual assaults.’
According to the documents provided to Der Spiegel, Ronaldo filled out a series of questionnaires after Mayorga reported the alleged assault. Though Ronaldo insists in his answers that the encounter was consensual, in one of the documents he reportedly stated: “She said no and stop several times”.
Currently playing for Juventus in Italy, Ronaldo hasn’t commented on the report. However, his lawyers have threatened to sue the German publication for what they call a “blatantly illegal” report and “an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy”.
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