Real Madrid reacts after being dragged into Ronaldo’s rape case

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 are 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.