Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players the sport of soccer has ever seen. His records at every club he has played at are beyond extraordinary. His international career is no less impressive. He is Portugal and the world’s all-time international top goal scorer. Ronaldo even captained Portugal to the European Championship title in 2016. In 2022, he participated in his fifth World Cup.
Bruno: “We hope that Ronaldo lifts this World Cup. We all hope that, Portugal win the World Cup. It would be a dream.” pic.twitter.com/pdodlsTe4l
— TC (@totalcristiano) November 28, 2022
However, one of his past controversies does not seem to leave. In 2009, Ronaldo was holidaying in Las Vegas with his brother-in-law and cousin. During this time, Ronaldo met a model, Kathryn Mayorga. The model had alleged that Ronaldo had r*ped her in the Las Vegas hotel in 2009. Ronaldo has denied all the claims, called them “fake news”, and maintained that the s*x was consensual.
Kathryn Mayorga and Cristiano Ronaldo: A complete timeline
In 2009, the two had met in a nightclub at Palms Casino Resort in its VIP area. Pictures had shown the two chatting and dancing intimately at the club before Ronaldo invited Mayorga and her friend to his hotel room. The room had a bathtub which Ronaldo allegedly invited Mayorga into, but she refused as her dress would have gotten ruined.
According to Mayorga, Ronaldo then gave her clothes to change into. She claims Ronaldo entered the bathroom where she was changing. The model said, “He starts to come on to me very strong. And he starts to do stuff to me and touch me and grab me. I pushed him away and kept saying, ‘No’.”
The model then went to the Las Vegas Police Department and evidence of the r*pe was documented. But Mayorga refused to identify Ronaldo as the attacker at the time. The charges were dropped in June 2019 by the police department and the District Attorney where the case was filed. This was because the information at the time could not prove the allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, according to The Sun, there were emails found that stated the DNA from Mayorga’s examination on the day in 2009 matched Cristiano’s. There were reportedly other emails in which Ronaldo says he heard Mayorga say “No”, but denied any wrongdoing. Jennifer Dorsey, the judge presiding over the case prohibited their use due to how they were obtained, and due to lack of their veracity.
Did Ronaldo settle out of court?
It was reported that Ronaldo had settled with the model outside of court for roughly $350,000. But the model suffered from PTSD and depression from the assault, and following the #MeToo movement wanted to tell her story. The reported agreement signed earlier was to prevent Mayorga from pursuing criminal charges and stopping her from going public with the story.
But the model’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, later attempted to overturn the settlement. The lawyer wanted to increase the settlement money to over “$25 million in damages, citing conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud,” according to GOAL.com. In 2022, Judge Dorsey denied the appeal. In turn, Stovall launched another appeal at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Stovall’s appeal was rejected again
Stovall’s appeal included the request to overturn the dismissal of Mayorga’s case but “he also argued that Dorsey had abused her discretion in her dismissing of the case.”
A long statement released by the court in November 2023 reads as follows: “The district court clearly recognized the gravity of dismissing the case and accordingly provided a thorough analysis, amply supported by factual finding.
“[The 2010 settlement] lay dormant until 2017, when … `Football Leaks’ released hundreds of documents through a cyber hack of Ronaldo’s former attorneys. Despite the settlement and confidentiality agreement between Ronaldo and Mayorga, Stovall sought and used documents from ‘Football Leaks’ — including those clearly marked attorney-client privileged — to prosecute a new lawsuit on behalf of Mayorga against Ronaldo.
🚨The court officially rules in favor of Cristiano Ronaldo in the alleged case against him by Kathryn Mayorga
The initial ruling was in favor of Ronaldo, and after the appeal was filed by Mayorga, the ruling came out again in favor of Ronaldo. [@maisfutebol]
Cristiano comes out… pic.twitter.com/Jbt7NJoDOf
— CristianoXtra (@CristianoXtra_) November 21, 2023
“Judge Dorsey properly held that Ronaldo did not waive or otherwise forfeit his claim of attorney-client privilege as to the ‘Football Leaks’ documents. Before the leak, his attorneys employed cybersecurity tools to protect their files.
“As the district court noted, Ronaldo mistakenly produced the course of ‘navigating this unorthodox predicament,’ kicked off by Mayorga’s counsel’s ‘unprincipled conduct’ long before, and instituted vigorous efforts to protect the documents afterwards. The district court did not abuse its discretion when it found that a case-terminating sanction was appropriate.”
As of November 2023, the case seems to be closed for good. Stovall received a hefty fine for his arguments which seems to be the final nail in the coffin for a case that had been running for 14 years.