Ronaldo slams Las Vegas woman's rape accusation as 'fake news'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Juventus' Mario Mandzukic, left, talks with his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo during the Serie A soccer match between Napoli and Juventus in Turin, Italy, Saturday. (Alessandro Di Marco/ANSA via AP)
After a woman went public with her claim that soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in 2009, the athlete posted video online calling the accusation “fake news.”
Ronaldo spoke out in an Instagram Live video just hours after an American woman filed court documents accusing him of assaulting her in a Las Vegas hotel room, the Sun reported Sunday.
"No, no, no, no, no. What they said today? Fake, fake news,” a smiling Ronaldo says into the camera in English, according to the paper.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They want to promote [themselves by using] my name. It’s normal,” he says. “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, 34, of Las Vegas, claims the 33-year-old Ronaldo raped her in a bathroom at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in June 2009, the paper reported.
She claims in the court papers that Ronaldo apologized to her after he raped her, according to the Sun.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I can't remember exactly what he said but he said sorry, asking if I had pain, the paper quoted her as saying in the court document. “Then he went down on his knees and said: '99% of me is a good guy, I just don’t know about the other 1%.'"
She said she filed a rape report with Las Vegas police the next day, according to the paper.
The documents claim Ronaldo confirmed the pair had sex, but said it was consensual, the paper reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reuters reported Saturday that Ronaldo’s lawyers are threatening to sue German magazine Der Spiegel for publishing Mayorga’s graphic allegations. The article ran Friday.
One of the lawyers said the Der Siegel article was “an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy,” Reuters reported.
Reuters quoted the magazine and Mayorga’s attorney, Leslie Stovall, as saying that woman signed a confidentiality agreement in exchange for a $375,000 payment from Ronaldo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News generally does not name sex assault victims, but Mayorga gave her name to Der Spiegel for her interview, and she is named as the plaintiff in the court papers filed in Las Vegas.
The 31-page lawsuit accuses Ronaldo and the other named defendants of participating in a “conspiracy to obstruct the criminal investigation and prosecution of Cristiano Ronaldo” for the alleged sexual assault, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported Saturday.
The Sun quoted Stovall as saying that he filed the lawsuit seeking to declare the confidentially agreement void.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mayorga did not answer telephone calls to her home, Reuters reported.
Ronaldo plays for Italian powerhouse Juventus and had three assists in a win Saturday.