eBusiness Weekly
The childhoods of Georgina Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo — the man who would change her life — weren’t so different.
They were both born into disadvantage with dreams of escaping their circumstances. For her it was chasing her passion for fashion away from the small mountain town of Jaca in northeastern Spain.
For him it was kicking a soccer ball off the small Portuguese island of Madeira to the top of the world.
They both had fathers that let them down, too.
Georgina’s dad was a drug trafficker who moved cocaine across the French border and spent more than 10 years of his life in jail before being kicked out of Spain back to his native Argentina.
Ronaldo’s father never recovered from being forced into military service and experiencing the atrocities of an unpopular war between Portugal and Angola. He turned to the bottle and was so lost in his alcoholism Ronaldo’s mother pondered aborting Cristiano as a baby.
Ronaldo’s path to the top is well-known. But Georgina’s incredible transformation from a girl who experienced the humblest of upbringings to become one of the most glamorous women in the world is just as compelling.
Rodriguez was born in Buenos Aires in Argentina but moved to Spain as a young child.
The brunette beauty initially dreamt of becoming a ballerina but turned her attention to clothing because her parents couldn’t afford to send her to dance lessons.
She moved to the coastal town of San Sebastian in her teens and worked in a Massimo Dutti shop selling clothes.
Desperate to make it to the fashion mecca of Madrid, Rodriguez realised her non-existent English was holding her back, so she moved to the UK.
Housed by a family in Bristol where she worked as nanny, the 17-year-old focused on mastering a second language while earning around $15 an hour.
“I wanted to work in luxury and I understood that for that I had to speak English,” Georgina told XLSemanal.
It wasn’t long before she could hold a conversation and missing the warmer climate of her homeland she moved to Madrid and landed her dream job at Gucci.
That’s where she met the customer who would make her old ambitions look minute.
You can imagine the buzz in the boutique when Ronaldo — the most famous and admired man in Madrid — walked in.
Not long removed from a heartbreaking split with Russian model and girlfriend of five years Irina Shayk, the Real Madrid superstar couldn’t help but notice the 168cm shop assistant.
“Days later we saw each other again at another brand’s event,” Rodriguez said.
“It was then that we could talk in a relaxed atmosphere, outside of my work environment. It was love at first sight for both.”
The couple kept their relationship under wraps for the first few months, but once people found out they were dating, football fans started turning up at Georgina’s shop.
Bosses feared the fans, who were trying to take pictures, would put off their rich clientele, and Georgina was dismissed.
Ronaldo’s contacts got her another job in Prada in El Corte Inglés, the famous Spanish department store, but it wasn’t long before fans cottoned on to the move and she was driven away from there too.
“There were always photographers waiting for me,” Rodriguez said.
“The director told me to go down to the basement because he did not want to see me in the store. I started to be very uncomfortable and then I left.”
With her relationship and stardom soaring, it wasn’t long before a steady income was the last of the 26-year-old’s worries.
Ronaldo already had three of his own children — Cristiano Jr, Eva and Mateo — born through surrogates in the United States, when he and Georgina welcomed their first baby daughter Alana Martina in late 2017.
Suddenly she was a mother-of-four.
“I have always been mature and for me to have four children is not a burden,” she said.
“I wear it very well and, in fact, I no longer imagine my life without my children. It has definitely brought us closer. We’re happier together than ever.
“The children are our joy.”
It wasn’t just her family that was booming.
Despite wealth no longer being an issue because of her partner’s billionaire status, Georgina leveraged her new-found fame — and a 21 million-strong Instagram following — into work as a model.
After selling designer clothes to the rich and famous, she’s now wearing them herself — from US$2 500 Balmain jackets and US$8 000 Chanel handbags to priceless vintage fur
coats.
Ronaldo’s 2018 move from Real Madrid to Juventus saw her move into a gated mansion in Turin in northern Italy, similar to the $8 million property that was their home in Spain.
Of course, Georgina is travelling in style too — jetting around in private planes, sailing on luxury yachts and driving sports cars like Ronaldo’s flashy Bugatti Veyron.
She’s now a regular feature on the red carpet — and also sporting what many believe is an engagement ring estimated to be in the $1 million range.
She has no plans on just living off her man, amassing an estimated personal wealth of $10 million. She also knows how to take care of it after completing a financial accounting degree during her pregnancy.
“I loved earning money for myself and I never let myself be helped when someone offered to lend me a hand,” Georgina previously said.
“I am realistic and if I see that I can buy something not too expensive I do. If I can’t wear a Chanel, I buy a Zara. Why brag about something that does not belong to you?”
She’s happy to brag about Ronaldo though.
“Being the partner of someone so famous is not easy but I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Georgina said.
“What I feel for him is stronger than anything, any kind of pressure.” — Fox Sport.
