Her father was a gun-toting drug runner immigrant whose crimes saw him deported to another continent, her mother was a lowly nightclub hostess who then struggled as a single mother – and she was raised in the most modest circumstances.
But Georgina Rodríguez is about to complete one of the most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories the world has ever known when she finally becomes Mrs Ronaldo and cements her position as the grandest and wealthiest WAG of them all.
This extraordinary tale of transformation, the Daily Mail can reveal, began in her humble home in the mountains of northern Spain where Georgina Rodriguez spent her childhood ‘dreaming of becoming famous’ – before a chance encounter with the world’s biggest football star made that dream a reality and transformed her into a billionaire.
The unassuming townhouse, nestled in the picturesque city of Jaca, in the Pyrenees, is a far cry from the extensive property portfolio she now enjoys alongside fiance Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 31-year-old’s engagement to the Portuguese football icon, 40, was revealed in an Instagram post this week, in which she flashed her gigantic £4million engagement ring.
The 35-carat diamond is worth more than 10 times her childhood home, estimated to be worth around €300,000 today.
It is just one of countless luxuries she enjoys documenting on her Instagram page, where she shares pictures with her 69 million followers of herself strolling around Dubai while clutching a Birkin handbag, flying on private jets and relaxing in jacuzzis on yachts with Ronaldo.
But beneath the surface of her rags-to-riches story are uncomfortable truths that she has kept out of the limelight including details of her father being jailed in Spain over a plot to import £100,000 worth of cocaine.
Georgina Rodríguez is about to complete one of the most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories the world has ever known when she finally becomes Mrs Ronaldo and cements her position as the grandest and wealthiest WAG of them all. Pictured: Ms Rodríguez and Cristiano Ronaldo
The 31-year-old’s engagement to the Portuguese football icon, 40, was revealed in an Instagram post this week, in which she flashed her gigantic £4million engagement ring (pictured)
Rodriguez had previously confused fans who believed Ronaldo might have already proposed by sporting similarly eye-popping diamond rings
Pictured: the home where Ms Rodríguez grew up. The unassuming townhouse, nestled in the picturesque city of Jaca, in the Pyrenees, is a far cry from the extensive property portfolio she now enjoys alongside fiance Cristiano Ronaldo
There have also been claims from her family that she has forgotten some of them – and some anger back home in Jaca over how she has portrayed her hometown.
For this reason, there was mixed reaction over her engagement announcement in the town this week.
‘I’m happy for them, she was a charming little girl,’ local waitress Ramona Manzanera, 50, said this week.
‘I knew her family, but I have not seen her mother for many years. They used to own a burger restaurant in Jaca’s bar district, but it closed down after a year or so, and Georgina worked at a bar around the corner.’
Ramona said some locals dislike Georgina and criticise her, which she puts down to jealousy.
She added: ‘I have nothing bad to say about her, this is a small city where everyone knows everyone, but there are lots of people with negative opinions because they are jealous that she got out and is successful and rich.’
Georgina’s engagement to £153million a year Al-Nassr striker Ronaldo comes nine years after their chance encounter in a Gucci store in Madrid, where the-then part-time model was working.
According to the couple, it was ‘love at first sight’ and in November the following year their daughter Alana was born.
They have since faced a series of trials and tribulations, including rape allegations against Ronaldo and accusations of cheating.
Tragedy then befell the couple in April 2022, when they announced that their newborn baby boy, one half of a set of twins, had died during childbirth at a Manchester hospital.
They have also been subjected to unfounded and cruel rumours that Georgina is a ‘cover’ to hide the fact that Ronaldo is gay – which still persist to this day.
Beneath the surface of Ms Rodríguez’s rags-to-riches story are uncomfortable truths that she has kept out of the limelight including details of her father being jailed in Spain over a plot to import £100,000 worth of cocaine
Pictured: One of the previous rings Georgina had posted on her Instagram page
Georgina’s engagement to £153million a year Al-Nassr striker Ronaldo comes nine years after their chance encounter in a Gucci store in Madrid, where the-then part-time model was working. According to the couple, it was ‘love at first sight’
Most fans know Georgina was born in Argentina and grew up in Jaca, where she returns to with her older sister Ivana in a chauffeur-driven car. But far fewer are aware of her father’s criminal past, which is completely ignored. And next to nothing is known about her Spanish mother
One local who went to the same school as Georgina told the Mail: ‘There are lots of people here who still don’t believe how they met – it’s rumoured they actually met in a club.
‘Now that they are engaged, maybe they hope it will put a stop to the gay rumours, but I think they are getting married for legal reasons, now that they have children together, it helps with paperwork and taxes.’
He said Georgina was a ‘typical girl at school who liked attention and wanted to be famous.’
However, he challenged claims that people criticise her due to envy, blaming instead her ‘exaggeration’ of an impoverished childhood in Jaca.
‘The idea of her going from poverty to riches is a bit exaggerated. Her parents weren’t always there for her but she lived in an okay house and went to ballet and swimming classes, she was well looked after,’ he said.
‘This isn’t a dump, it’s an area where wealthy Spanish people come on holiday, her childhood home is now worth around €300,000.’
He also said she avoids talking about father, Jorge Rodriguez Gorjon, who was deported from Spain following a foiled drug-trafficking plot, and later died, penniless in his native native Buenos Aires in January 2019 aged 70.
When he was released from prison Jorge was deported to Argentina miles away from Georgina and the rest of the family.
‘He seemed a typical macho guy who would go to a bar and get in a fight,’ he said, ‘but he wasn’t feared and didn’t seem dangerous in person.’
Gorjon, who worked as a football coach for the local Jacetona club, served 10 years in a Spanish jail for two drug trafficking offences.
These included masterminding a failed attempt to smuggle more than £100,000 of cocaine from Spain to France the day before Georgina’s fifth birthday.
Georgina’s half sister Patricia claimed that she once saw their father carrying a gun at home while preparing drug parcels.
It’s just one of several pieces missing from the carefully-crafted story of Georgina’s rise to stardom, which is documented in her Netflix ‘reality’ TV series ‘I Am Georgina’, which first began streaming in January 2022.
Most fans know Georgina was born in Argentina and grew up in Jaca, where she returns to with her older sister Ivana in a chauffeur-driven car.
But far fewer are aware of her father’s criminal past, which is completely ignored. And next to nothing is known about her Spanish mother Ana Maria Hernandez, a mystery figure who has never been photographed since Cristiano’s bride-to-be became a household name, or played any significant part in the public story she puts out about her life.
Spanish media have claimed Murcia-born Ana Maria did unspecified ‘night-time’ work before her two daughters were born and moved to Italy without them after their father was jailed.
A friend of Georgina’s father has gone on record as saying Jorge met his future wife at the secluded nightspot he used to own on the outskirts of Jaca where she is said to have earned a living working as a hostess.
She is thought to live in a small village in Girona near Spain’s border with France where locals described her in January 2022 as a ‘dyed-blonde’ in her 60s who had recently supervised renovation work at a rundown bungalow.
Georgina was initially thought to have purchased the property as a new home for her mother before it was put up for sale.
The model and influencer has thanked her mum publicly.
She once described Ana Maria and her big sister as ‘a little family of three’ who are ‘unconditional and inseparable’, despite her apparent determination to protect her mum from public scrutiny.
Georgina Rodriguez spent her childhood ‘dreaming of becoming famous’ – before a chance encounter with the world’s biggest football star made that dream a reality and transformed her into a billionaire. Pictured: the home where she grew up
Pictured: the local swimming club Ms Rodriguez attended as a child, located next to where her father, Jorge Rodriguez Gorjon, coached football. Gorjon, who worked as a football coach for the local Jacetona club, served 10 years in a Spanish jail for two drug trafficking offences
One local who went to the same school as Georgina told the Mail that Ms Rodriguez avoids talking about father (pictured), who was deported from Spain following a foiled drug-trafficking plot, and later died, penniless in January 2019 aged 70
Georgina’s extended family, including her maternal uncle Jesus Hernandez and her step-sister Patricia Hernandez, have filled in some of the holes they accuse her of airbrushing out of her life.
Patricia, who has claimed Ana Maria put her in a boarding school after her own mother died when she was 11, because she ‘couldn’t look after her’, went on national Spanish TV after the January 2022 premiere of the first series of ‘I Am Georgina’ to claim Georgina had erased her from her life.
Patricia also recalled seeing their dad carrying a pistol as he prepared parcels containing drugs at home, which she said he tried to make out were food parcels for the poor.
Georgina’s maternal grandmother Juana Escarabajal was 80 when she died in November 2019, after spending the last years of her life in a tiny prefab in Lorca near Murcia.
She previously spoke of her anguish at never meeting Georgina’s eldest daughter Alana Martina with Cristiano.
She once admitted in an emotional interview: ‘I only saw my granddaughter in a photo when she was very small that Georgina sent.’
Georgina’s uncle Jesus Hernandez once complained: ‘I think she may feel ashamed of us and considers she’s better than us because we don’t enjoy the sort of life she does or live with her luxury.
‘I’ve never asked Georgina for anything, even though I know who she’s with. She has only ever rung me once or twice since I found out she was dating Cristiano Ronaldo.’
In a TV interview ahead of her Netflix show, Jesus said Georgina’s dad asked him to provide for the family after he was jailed for drug trafficking.
‘I did everything,’ he said. ‘Georgina was living with me from the age of 15 until the day they sent her father back to Argentina.
‘Noone in the family told us Jorge had died or what his final resting place was.’
Jesus’ partner Lidia added: ‘Georgina stopped calling Jesus and her grandmother the day she gave birth to her daughter.
‘They called her to see how she was, her grandmother got on the phone and said to her, ‘You’re with a millionaire footballer, let’s see if you send us €1,000.
‘Do you know how Georgina replied? She said told her, ‘Just so you know I’m not going to call you again.’
‘My mother-in-law’s comments were a joke, she was 79 at the time and had dementia.’
Cristiano has asked for Georgina’s hand in marriage after years of false rumours they had already wed sparked by his constant description of her as his ‘Mi mujer’ – ‘My wife’ in Spanish.
In November 2019 it was incorrectly reported they had tied the knot in Marrakech in Morocco which fuelled the speculation about their relationship status.
Georgina has stood by him despite cheating allegations and outrageous claims Ronaldo was gay compounded by the nightmare of a high-profile US rape court case in which Ronaldo described 2018 as ‘possibly the worst year of my life.’
Portuguese model Natacha Sofia Freitas Rodrigues claimed he cheated on Georgina in March 2017 with her – months after he met Georgina.
Natacha said she received messages from Ronaldo saying: ‘I love your bum, I want to see it in the flesh’ before he handed her a baseball cap as a parting gift after their tryst at his Lisbon apartment.
She later said: ‘I can sympathise with Georgina and what she might have gone through. I’m sure she believes Cristiano cheated on her with me and I think she’s worked out how to forgive him.’
Georgina has stood by Ronaldo despite cheating allegations and outrageous claims Ronaldo was gay compounded by the nightmare of a high-profile US rape court case in which Ronaldo described 2018 as ‘possibly the worst year of my life’
Georgina also stood by her man when Kathryn Mayorga attempted to reopen her rape case against him in 2018.
She claimed he forced her to have sex in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. He insisted it was consensual and paid her a £275,000 financial settlement.
Police never bought charges against him and US courts rejected her later bids to claim millions more from him.
Georgina has claimed it was ‘love at first sight’ when Cristiano walked into her shop in June 2016.
As she confirmed she had agreed to be the football star’s wife on Monday, she gushed: ‘Yes, I do. In this life and in all my lives.’ But it was the ring on her finger, compared by some critics to a boulder because of its size, that got as much attention as the couple’s long-awaited Instagram announcement.
They are expected to tie the knot in Ronaldo’s native Madeira.
