Stronger every day. Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez‘s love for one another has guided them through even their biggest challenges.
The couple were first linked two years after the former Manchester United player‘s 2015 split from Irina Shayk. Ronaldo was already the father of son Cristiano Jr., born in 2010, before sparking his high-profile romances. (He has stated that he will never publicly reveal the identity of his child’s mother.)
When Ronaldo and Rodríguez attended their first event as a couple in January 2017 — the Best FIFA Football Awards in Germany — they were accompanied by the athlete’s son. The pair later reflected on the beginning of their relationship in Netflix’s I Am Georgina, which debuted in January 2022.
“We had a very special start to our relationship,” Rodríguez, who was working in a Gucci store when she met her beau, told the cameras. “Many times he’d come after work. He [came], I remember once, in a Bugatti. My coworkers went crazy. They get there on the bus, and I would leave in a Bugatti. I mean, people couldn’t believe it.”
The Portugal native chimed in: “It was funny because I would wait for her outside the store in these flashy cars I have. … We would go home, and there we would go into our own world.”
As their romance continued to bloom, the pair expanded their modern family. Five months after Ronaldo announced he welcomed twins Eva and Mateo via surrogate, Rodríguez gave birth to her and the UEFA Champions Leagues winner’s baby girl.
“We both chose the name. Cristiano chose Alana and I chose [her middle name], Martina,” the Argentinian model told ¡HOLA! magazine in December 2017. “We decided to give her both names that each of us chose. We thought it was even more special.”
She told the outlet: “When I have him next to me, I have everything. The children are our happiness — we wake up and the first thing we do is hug and kiss them.”
The pair frequently gave glimpses of their children’s milestones before announcing in October 2021 that Rodríguez was pregnant with twins. When she gave birth the following April, however, one of the babies died during delivery.
“Gio arrived home and the kids start to say, ‘Where’s the other baby, where’s the other baby?’” Ronaldo told Piers Morgan while reflecting on the loss of their son in a November 2022 interview. “The kids understand. We had shouts around the table and they say, ‘Daddy, I did this for Ángel.’ And they point to the sky. Which I like the most because he’s part of their lives. I am not gonna lie to my kids. I say the truth, which was a difficult process.”
Scroll down for a look back at Ronaldo and Rodríguez’s love story: