Cristiano Ronaldo is threatening to sue a German media outlet that published detailed allegations of a woman who accused the Juventus star of rape.
German publication Der Spiegel released an article that featured an interview with Kathryn Mayorga. She accused Ronaldo of rape last year, but did so anonymously, and her identity was not known publicly until the release of this report.
In the article, Mayorga’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, claims that Ronaldo paid $375,000 following the incident, and he also claims to have documents that show Ronaldo admitting to hearing verbally refuse consent. Stovall told Der Spiegel that he had filed a civil suit against Ronaldo in the state of Nevada, hoping to void the non-disclosure agreement signed after the incident, but ESPN reports that a records search “did not find whether a complaint had been filed in Nevada.”
Since publication of the Der Spiegel article, Ronaldo’s agency, Gestifute, released a statement calling the article “journalistic fiction” and claiming the documents mentioned by Mayorga’s lawyer are “unsigned” and “whose authenticity [Ronaldo] does not know.”
The alleged incident took place in the Palms Place Hotel in a penthouse suite, according to the report.
Ronaldo’s lawyer, Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwälte, released a statement claiming that the report is “blatantly illegal” and stated that Ronaldo will sue Der Speigel for “compensation for moral damages.”