Monday, Aug. 19, 2019 | 3:12 p.m.
Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is finally admitting he paid $375,000 to a rape accuser, acknowledging the hush-money deal with the goal of getting the woman's latest lawsuit tossed.
German magazine Der Spiegel first discovered the 2010 out-of-court settlement in 2017, but Ronaldo dismissed the woman's claims and related reporting as "fake news."
The woman went public and sued in state court in Nevada in 2018 to void the deal. She filed a follow-up lawsuit in federal court last January claiming battery, coercion, abuse of a vulnerable person, racketeering and defamation.
In response paperwork that surfaced Monday, Ronaldo, 34, publicly confirmed the whopping payment.
"Mr. Ronaldo paid plaintiff the sum of $375,000.00 and both parties agreed to be bound by explicit confidentiality and non-disparagement obligations," his new Friday filing obtained by the Daily News states.
"Nowhere in the complaint does plaintiff contend she was not paid the full $375,000.00," the filing says.
The Portuguese player and his lawyers argue the majority of claims from accuser Kathryn Mayorga are unfounded and beyond the statute of limitations -- and that her defamation claim should be resolved in private arbitration.
"Mr. Ronaldo should not be forced to defend these stale claims in any forum. The parties should be compelled to arbitrate any claims not subject to dismissal," his filing states.
Mayorga, a schoolteacher and model from Nevada, says she met the soccer star on June 12, 2009 at the Rain Nightclub inside the Palms Hotel and Casino in Vegas.
She says he invited her to join a hot tub party in his penthouse suite, then ambushed her and exposed his erect penis as she was changing. She claims he pulled her into a bedroom, ignored her protests, sodomized her and then apologized.
She reported the incident to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police within hours of the alleged attack.
Mayorga argues in her filing that she attended settlement discussions while experiencing intense psychological trauma from the attack and that she suffered extreme fear of public humiliation and retaliation if she pursued a criminal case.
She further claims Ronaldo and his "team of fixers" had a "confidential source" inside the police department who assured them cops would "happily" close the investigation if a financial settlement was arranged.
She alleges Ronaldo and his "fixers" knew she was vulnerable and "repeatedly threatened to falsely and publicly accuse (her) of consenting to sexual intercourse" so they could spin her allegations as an extortion plot.
In his new filing on Friday, Ronaldo disputed Mayorga's claims.
"Given the number of times she 'threatened to walk out,' plaintiff undoubtedly understood she was free to leave at any time and accordingly, settlement was optional," his filing states.
"While plaintiff lays blame with the mediator and her lawyer for not recognizing her so-called 'incompetency,' she acknowledges that at the time of mediation the parties agreed to resolve their dispute absent litigation," his paperwork states.
The judge has not yet ruled on his motion for dismissal.
