Irina Shayk opens up about Ronaldo

For the five years that Irina Shayk went out with Cristiano Ronaldo, the Russian model rarely spoke to the press about her relationship. But less than three months after the couple broke up, and Shayk has already capitalized on the separation, attending a large number of promotional events where she is always ready to talk to the media.

Shayk had justified her former discretion on the grounds that she was a professional with a solid career of her own before dating the FIFA soccer player of the year. But time has shown that the couple had made a pact of silence.

They were never an ordinary couple: the two were rarely seen together in public, a fact that both blamed on their busy work schedules. It was only during the final months of their relationship that Irina moved in with Ronaldo, who lives in a luxury estate called La Finca on the outskirts of the capital. Before that, every time she came to Madrid she stayed at a hotel on Paseo de la Castellana.

Shayk’s agent, Gael Marie, has always claimed that Irina was already a well-established professional when she started seeing the soccer player. “She is one of the greats, and has been so since before she met Cristiano. We have worked to separate her professional career from her personal life. She doesn’t want to be known simply as Cristiano’s girlfriend, but for her work,” says Marie. So either the tactics have changed, or the pact of silence has been broken.

The model has recently told journalists that Ronaldo made her feel “ugly and insecure”, until she realized that she was “with the wrong man,” adding: “If you are going to have a relationship then it has to be a good one, otherwise it is best to drop it. Relationships are tough, and you have to know what kind of man you want at your side and what his values are, which is the important thing in life. If you are with somebody it is because you are both going in the same direction and looking for the same thing,” she concludes.

These comments have not gone down well with Ronaldo, according to close friends. And not just for what they might say about him, but also because the Catalan sports media is making great use of them at a difficult time for Real Madrid and for the player.

Former Real Madrid player Guti has joined in the fray, blaming Ronaldo’s recent less-than-stellar performance on the pitch to the breakup, saying that the same thing happened to him when he separated from Arantxa de Benito.

“I have been in Real Madrid and I have split up, and it’s not easy. It was a difficult time for me. I was playing and taking pills at the same time, and nobody knew about it. These are difficult things to accept, and on top of everything, you have to go out and play every Sunday at the Bernabéu and deal with the pressure,” he said last week on the television network La Sexta.

Irina Shayk accepted early on that her relationship with Cristiano would not be easy. Just a few months after they began dating, the player announced that he had just become a father. “It is with great emotion and joy that I announce that I have recently become the father of a boy. The baby's mother and I have agreed, since she prefers her identity not to be revealed, that I will have sole custody of the child. No more information will be provided about this matter and I ask everybody to completely respect my right to privacy (and the child’s), at least in matters as personal as these.”