Spanish giant, Real Madrid are
planning to take legal action against a Portuguese newspaper that reported the
club forced Cristiano Ronaldo to settle with the woman who accused him of rape.
In a statement, the club said the
information published by Correio da Manhã is “categorically false” and was
printed in an effort to “seriously damage the image of this club”.
Real said they have “absolutely no
knowledge of any of the information that the newspaper published with regard to
the player Cristiano Ronaldo, and therefore the club was unable to take action
on a matter of which it had no knowledge.”
The club is expected to take legal
action against a Portuguese newspaper that suggested the club pressurised
Cristiano Ronaldo into seeking a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with his
accuser.
This comes a day after Correio da
Manhã published an article saying that part of Ronaldo’s defence will be to say
that Real forced him to settle. It said Ronaldo was against settling and always
declared his innocence.
According to the newspaper, they said
what they published and everything that went into the article was checked.
Kathryn Mayorga, 34, filed a lawsuit
late last month in Nevada saying she was raped by Ronaldo in Las Vegas in
2009. The teacher, who was an aspiring
model at the time of the alleged assault, claims Ronaldo raped her in a
bathroom at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in the early hours of June
13, 2009.
But Cristiano Ronaldo has repeatedly
denied the accusations but admitted that they had consensual sex after which
'they returned to Rain nightclub and spent several hours together.'
He also admitted that he paid
Mayorga $375,000 (£284,000) hush-money
payment in 2010, after she signed a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet
about their hook up.
