Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo vehemently denied recent rape accusations on Wednesday after a woman said he sexually assaulted her in Las Vegas in 2009.
“Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in,” Ronaldo tweeted in English and Portuguese. “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.”
He added that his “clear conscious” will allow him to wait “with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”
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
My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
In the suit filed last Friday, Kathryn Mayorga accused Ronaldo of sexually assaulting her on June 13, 2009, after he invited her and a group of people up to his Las Vegas hotel room at the Palms Hotel and Casino. The suit states that after Mayorga changed into clothes to go swimming in Ronaldo’s bathroom, he “pulled the plaintiff into a bedroom and onto a bed and attempted to engage in sexual intercourse.” The suit continued that Mayorga refused and covered herself up, but that “Ronaldo turned plaintiff onto her side and while screaming ‘no, no, no’ she was sodomized by Cristiano Ronaldo.”
Mayorga said she was coaxed into signing a nondisclosure agreement a year later for $375,000. The civil suit seeks to void the settlement and agreement.
The Las Vegas Police Department has since reopened its investigation into Mayorga’s claims.
Mayorga is too “emotionally fragile” to talk to the media about the incident, her lawyer told the Associated Press on Tuesday. The suit also comes after Mayorga spoke with German publication Der Spiegel on Friday and provided an account of the 2009 incident. Later on Friday, Ronaldo responded to Mayorga’s claims in an Instagram Live video, calling her account “fake news” aimed at making her famous by using his name.
The Portuguese-born Ronaldo, who now plays for Italian club Juventus, is one of the most popular and recognizable athletes in the world.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.