Portugal and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo has finally broken silence on the rape allegations levelled at him and has said that the case did take a toll on him mentally. Ronaldo was accused of sexually assaulting Kathryn Mayorga in a Las Vegas hotel in June 2009. The Portugal forward, a five-time Champions League winner, kept denying all these charges and eventually, the case was closed.
It needs to be mentioned here that the case, which was originally closed 10 years ago, was reopened again in August 2018, shortly before Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit in September and offered details she initially withheld. In July this year, prosecutors announced that they would not be prosecuting the case because the allegations could not "be proven beyond a reasonable doubt".
"They play with your dignity," Ronaldo told 'Good Morning Britain' in an interview with Piers Morgan. "It's hard. You have a girlfriend, you have a family, you have kids. When they play with your honesty, it's bad, it's hard," he further added.
'I was embarrased'
Speaking about the turmoil, Ronaldo revealed how he had to change the channel to keep his kids away from the news which was blaring with the accusations continuously.
"I remember one day I was at home in the living room with my girlfriend watching the television to see the news and they speak about 'Cristiano Ronaldo this and that.' I listened to my kids coming down the stairs and I changed the channel because I was embarrassed."
In the same show, Morgan also showed the football star a video of his father where he was seen talking about how proud he felt owing to his son's achievements. Ronaldo went on to claim that his father never saw him receive any awards and that he had never seen the video where his father spoke so highly about him.
"I never saw the video. I never saw that video. Unbelievable. To be the number one and he doesn't see anything. He doesn't see me receive awards," Ronaldo said during the interview. When Morgan said that Aveiro was never able to see how great Ronaldo became, the footballer responded - "Never. My family see, my mum, my brothers, even my old son, but my father, he didn't see nothing, and it was... he died young."
