Cristiano Ronaldo has released a statement after he was accused of rape, denying allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman.
Ronaldo had been accused of raping a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
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“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” the soccer star tweeted on Wednesday. “Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.”
I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
In a second tweet, he wrote, “My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”
My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
Ronaldo also seemingly addressed the claims during his Instagram live on Friday.
“What they said today, fake — fake news,” he said. “They want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous — to say my name. Yeah but it’s part of the job. I’m (a) happy man and all, all good.”
Kathryn Mayorga claimed in a lawsuit that after meeting at a nightclub in the Palms hotel, Ronaldo invited her to his suite. There, she alleges, she was changing in a bathroom when Ronaldo entered and asked her to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, Mayorga says the athlete took her into a bedroom and raped her as she repeatedly screamed “no.”
Her lawsuit claims that after the attack, Ronaldo apologized to Mayorga, “stating he was sorry, he was usually a gentleman.”
After the alleged assault, Mayorga reported the incident to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, but did not name the soccer star for fear of retaliation. She also alleges that Ronaldo and a team of “fixers” coerced her into filing a settlement.
CNN reports that Mayorga’s new lawsuit is seeking to void her settlement and the nondisclosure agreement she signed in 2009. Las Vegas police said that they reopened the original criminal investigation last month.
Photo Credit: Getty / Emilio Andreoli
