Also on the table at the time was a 2009 rape allegation in Las Vegas that had surfaced in a massive trove of football-related documents published by whistleblower platform Football Leaks and leaked to German magazine Der Spiegel, which reported on the allegations against Ronaldo in April 2017. According to a 2019 report by The New Yorker, the stash also included a 2010 settlement agreement and a cover letter identifying the alleged perpetrator, referred to in the agreement as “Mr. D,” as Ronaldo.
The case was closed in 2009 but reopened in Las Vegas when the alleged victim, Kathryn Mayorgawent public in 2018, inspired by the #MeToo movement, she said. She said she was attacked by people from Ronaldo's camp and pressured into accepting $375,000 in hush money.
Ronaldo denied all this and called the allegations “fake news” in a social media post in September.
“Of course, this story intervenes in my life,” he told France Football. “I have a partner, four children, an ageing mother, sisters, a brother, a family that I am very close to. Not to mention my reputation, which is that of an exemplary person… Imagine what it means if someone accuses you of rape, whether you have all that or not. I know who I am and what I did. One day the truth will come out. And the people who criticise me today or try to expose my life, who make it a circus, those people will see it.”
