18th September, 2019
Football Legend Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday evening treated the world to a unique insight into his private life without mincing words.
Cristiano Ronaldo sat down with Piers Morgan for one of the most revealing interviews that will be talked about for many years to come.
The Juventus star opened up about his father, mother, girlfriend, his career and also some of the controversies that have threatened to derail his illustrious career.
Ronaldo showed a wealth of different emotions. He smiles, he laughs, but also cries during one of the most personal interviews he has ever granted.
1. Rape allegations left him “embarrassed”
Ronaldo was clearly earlier this year of allegations of rape against him, following an incident which happened over a decade ago.
He opened up on the emotional turmoil of the situation and also what the allegations meant for his girlfriend, his kids and his parents.
“They play with your dignity. It’s hard,” he said.
“You have a girlfriend, you have a family. You have kids. When they play with your honesty, it’s bad, it’s hard.
“One day I was at home in the living room with my girlfriend and then the news they speak about Cristiano Ronaldo, this and that.
“You listen to you kids coming down the stairs and you change the channel because I was embarrassed. I feel embarrassed.
“It makes you feel so bad.”
2. Ronaldo’s regret about his father
Ronaldo revealed his devastation that his father was never able to see him win the very top awards in world football.
Dinis Aveiro passed away when Ronaldo was just 20 years old following a liver failure, which was caused by his alcoholism.
While Ronaldo never had the closest father-son relationship, it still pains him that his dad was not able to be there for some of the most iconic moments of his career.
After being shown a video of his dad talking with great pride about Ronaldo, he said: “I have to have these images to show my family. But I really don’t know my father 100 per cent.
“He was a drunk person. I never spoke with him, like a normal conversation. It was hard.”
Asked what the sadness was, he said: “To be the number one, and he doesn’t see nothing, and he don’t see to receive awards.
“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.”
3. He has banned his mum from watching games
Ronaldo has claimed that his mum has fainted twice watching big football matches – so he doesn’t let her watch them anymore.
He said: “She gets so nervous, I don’t understand why.
“She is not allowed now to watch big games.
“I get friends to stay with her and she goes for walks around the house. She fainted two times in the stadium. She is nervous.
“It is impossible, I don’t have a father anymore and I don’t want to lose my mum, so I told her ‘you will not watch semi-finals or finals anymore’.”
4. He wants to marry – and it’s nearly the right time.
Ronaldo spoke with great fondness about his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez, who is also the mother of his twin children.
He described her as the greatest love of his life – but when asked about potential marriage, he began to stutter.
Ronaldo replied “why not” when asked if she could become Cristiano’s wife.
But when asked if he was going to announce if he was getting married, Ronaldo said: “Not now, not in this interview. It’s not the priority, but of course, why not? One day. I’m not… avoid that.”
“Hang on. You’re 34 years old. You’ve got four children. You have been avoiding it.
Ronaldo stuttered: “Don’t make me pressure, please.”
But Morgan persisted and said: “You’ve been avoiding it. Come on, Cristiano.”
To which Ronaldo responded: “One day. No, we’ll be one day, for sure. It’s my mum’s dream as well. So, one day. Why not?”
5. Ronaldo opened up about the unusual way he first laid eyes on girlfriend Georgina, as he described the first meeting as “love at first sight”.
Morgan asked: “You met at a Gucci store?”
Ronaldo replied: “Yes, it was. Geo, is, you know, it’s part of me. She helped me so much. Of course I’m in love for her.
“She’s the mum of my kids, and I’m so passion for her, you know. It’s great. She’s my friend. We have conversations, I open the heart for her, she open the heart for me.
“Probably the…”
Morgan interrupts and says: “The greatest love of your life?”
Ronaldo responded: “Exactly. This is what I want to say.”
6. Is Ronaldo really worth half a billion?
Ronaldo very honestly opened up on the wealth that he possesses as Morgan asked him whether it’s right that he is worth half a billion dollars.
“I think so, I hope so. I think that might be too much,” he said, laughing.
“I am not 100 per cent but what I can say is I have good money in the bank.”
He was then asked how many cars he owned. He said 17.
The collection includes two Bugattis, two Ferraris, two McLarens. and two Rolls-Royces.
Of them, the Rolls-Royce is his favourite.
7. How Messi ‘rivalry’ improved him
He explained that he went out for dinner with Ronaldo when they went off air and spoke about the comparisons that he gets to Lionel Messi.
“He said to me that with the Messi thing, he said that he felt that both of them were better players because of each other,” Morgan said.
“[Ronaldo] thought that both of them raised each other’s game [and] that they wouldn’t have been as good if they weren’t in competition.”
8. He loves Geo than his best goal.
Morgan said that the overhead kick against Juventus is his favourite Ronaldo goal ever… and the man himself agrees.
“I tried to score this goal for many, many years. I had scored 700-odd goals but I hadn’t done this. I thought ‘finally I had scored a bicycle, the beautiful jumping’,” he said.
“The way I had done against Buffon, against Juventus, in the Champions League. It was a beautiful goal.”
Morgan then asked if the goal is better than sex…
“ No, not with my Geo no,” he said laughing.
9. He once sneaked into a nightclub
Ronaldo had one of the best nights of his life when he celebrated New Year’s Eve in a nightclub in Portugal.
But despite the wig and moustache, he was still spotted – because of his voice.
“One New Year’s Eve, I said to my friend Ricky that we have to go out, we have to go to a discotech.
“We were out in Madrid in a wig and glasses, I said we are only going to speak English.
“I only spoke to Portuguese only to my friend Ricky when we went to get a drink, but a guy behind me said ‘I know you are, Cristiano’.
“He told the whole discotech.”
Despite this, Ronaldo insists it is still one of the greatest nights of his life.