Cristiano Ronaldo has acknowledged paying his rape accuser Kathryn Mayorga $375,000 to settle the claim in 2010, it has emerged.
American model Mayorga claimed the football star raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 but Ronaldo strongly denies the claims.
Las Vegas authorities announced last month that there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Ronaldo, 34.
Mayorga is pressing ahead with a civil case, but Ronaldo’s lawyers want to have it thrown out – saying the claim was already settled with a payoff and confidentiality agreement in 2010.
In newly filed court documents, obtained by TMZ, Ronaldo’s camp are said to acknowledge the $375,000 figure.
Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured left) has acknowledged paying his rape accuser Kathryn Mayorga (right) $375,000 to settle the claim in 2010, it has emerged
His lawyers say the payment was not an admission of guilt, but merely an effort to keep the story from public attention.
Mayorga’s lawyers now want the agreement thrown out.
Ronaldo’s representatives declined to comment when approached by MailOnline today.
The Portugal player’s lawyers have acknowledged that he and Mayorga had sex in June 2009, but they insisted it was consensual.
Last October Ronaldo said: ‘I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything I am and believe in.’
His mother Dolores has stuck by Ronaldo throughout the months-long investigation, saying in February that she had ‘confidence in my son when it comes to what happened’.
The mother-of-four also lashed out at Ronaldo’s American accuser, saying she ‘didn’t go to his hotel room to play cards’.
Cristiano Ronaldo with his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez, who has backed him over the rape claims, in Madrid earlier this year
Ronaldo’s girlfriend, 25-year-old Spanish model Georgina Rodriguez, also stood by him over the claims.
The civil lawsuit, in which Mayorga sought more than $200,000 in damages, has been moved to federal court.
Police could not conduct ‘any meaningful investigation’ at the time because Mayorga declined to say who assaulted her or where it occurred, U.S. prosecutors said.
As a result, detectives were ‘unable to search for and impound vital forensic evidence,’ and video showing Ronaldo and Mayorga together was lost, they added.
Mayorga contacted police in August of last year to ask that the case be reopened, at which point she named Ronaldo as the alleged assailant.
Her lawyers have said she was inspired to speak out and make her claim public by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
Mother and son: Cristiano Ronaldo’s mother Dolores Aveiro (they are pictured together in 2016) stood by her footballer son during the criminal investigation
Ronaldo, pictured left with his mother when he played for Manchester United in 2009, and right playing for Juventus, always denied the claims
In January, a Spanish court handed Ronaldo a suspended two-year prison sentence for committing tax fraud while he was at Real Madrid.
This was immediately reduced to a fine of 365,000 euros ($410,000), on top of another penalty of 3.2million euros ($3.6 million).
Ronaldo left Real Madrid last summer after nine seasons with the club, joining Italian champions Juventus.
While in Spain he became Real Madrid’s highest ever goalscorer, netting 451 times after joining from Manchester United for a then-world record £80million in 2009.
He helped Real win three consecutive Champions League titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Ronaldo is also Portugal’s most-capped player, with 158 appearances, and record goalscorer, with 88.