Parenting advice

IT’S almost a year since Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez welcomed their daughter Bella Esmeralda into the world in a very bittersweet way, with the tragic loss of Bella’s twin brother Angel.And Spanish influencer Georgina, 29, has now revealed she had suffered three miscarriages before.
Georgina Rodriguez said: ‘I was very afraid at each ultrasound. I felt very tense because I’d had three previous miscarriages and I came home in pieces’Credit: Reuters
The couple on Instagram with the ultrasound scan of their unborn twins
She says: “Every time I went to the gynaecologist’s at night I had nightmares because I was worried about what position they would be in, what the delivery would be like, if it would be a Caesarean section.
“I was very afraid at each ultrasound. I felt very tense because I’d had three previous miscarriages and I came home in pieces.”
She describes her visits to the gynaecologist as “horrible, because I was always vomiting”.
Soon after Georgina gave birth in April 2022, she and Ronaldo, 38, announced Angel’s death as they paid tribute online.
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He wrote on social media: “It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away. It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel.
‘You ask yourself how you’ll carry on’
“Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness.
“We would like to thank the doctors and nurses for all their expert care and support.
“We are all devastated at this loss and we kindly ask for privacy at this very difficult time.
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“Our baby boy, you are our angel. We will always love you.”
Georgina makes her shock revelations in the new series of Netflix documentary I Am Georgina, which is set to premiere on Friday.
As well as Bella, she shares daughter Alana, three, with Ronaldo, while the former Manchester United star also has son Cristiano Jr, 12 — whose mother’s identity he has never revealed — and four-year-old twins Eva and Mateo, who he had with an American surrogate.
Georgina, who treats all of Ronaldo’s brood as her own, says she didn’t immediately tell her other children that Angel had not survived, instead saying he would be born a little later than his sister.
She says: “They were born on Easter Monday. The most-awaited moment arrives and your heart stops.
“Bella was born strong and healthy but a piece of my heart shattered.
“You ask yourself how you’re going to carry on. I wasn’t prepared to accept or recognise what had happened to me and I wasn’t ready to tell my children about it.
“As I still had a belly, I told them that Angel was still going to wait a bit to be born, until Cris told them that Angel was in Heaven. That was a dose of reality.”
Ronaldo has previously spoken of the challenging conversations he had to have with his other children when they returned home from hospital without Angel.
The smiling family with their new addition, their daughter Bella
Ronaldo holds the couple’s new baby Bella
He told Piers Morgan on TalkTV: “In the beginning Gio (Georgina) arrived home and the kids start to say, ‘Where’s the other baby?’
“I had a conversation with Cristiano (Junior) on the day, because he’s 12 years old, he knows, understands everything, and I had a nice conversation with him.
“We cried together in his bedroom and explained and he does understand, but in the same way he was a little bit confused.
“The other ones in the beginning, the kids start to say, ‘Mum, where is the other baby, blah blah blah’. And you know, she had a little bit of a belly because they had two, it’s a hard process.
“And after one week I say, ‘Let’s be up front and let’s be honest with the kids, let’s say that Angel, they go to Heaven’.”
Before Georgina returned home from hospital, her sister Ivana helped by removing the cot, Moses cradle and teddy bear that Georgina had prepared for Angel at the Cheshire home where the family were then living.
This year they moved to Saudi Arabia, after Ronaldo signed for Riyadh club Al-Nassr.
And after the turmoil of the last year Georgina has found that being a mum to Bella has provided some comfort.
She says: “She has managed to fill to some extent that hole that is present in my life.
“When she’s older and we tell her what happened, she will be very proud of what she has achieved.”
But she continues: “I will never be the same person again. Every time I look at Bella I ask myself, ‘Would Angel be like that?’
“The truth is I feel I am not ready to think about it, as if I still haven’t accepted it.
“I always say to my children, ‘Your little brother is in the sky, he doesn’t want to walk, he wants to fly. Every time you look at the sky, think of him’.”
There are other reminders of Angel for Georgina and Ronaldo.
In the documentary, Georgina is filmed getting a tattoo done, thought to be in memory of Angel, and Ronaldo has said he keeps his son’s ashes with him in the house, as well as those of his father José, who died of liver failure in 2005.
‘We are a nice couple and we help each other’
The couple met when Georgina was working as a £10-an-hour sales assistant at the Gucci shop in Madrid, and she has previously said it was “love at first sight”.
They were first seen together going on a string of dates towards the end of 2016.
In the new Netflix series Georgina, who now has 47 million followers on Instagram, thanks her partner for his “unconditional support and love” and helping her through one of the toughest periods of her life.
She adds: “Cris really encouraged me to continue with my agenda.
“He said, ‘Gio, get on with your life, it’ll do you good’.
“He has played a really important role. Gods put the right people in your path.”
Likewise, Ronaldo has spoken about the support that Georgina has given him.
He said: “She’s very mature for this age. We help each other sometimes when I’m a little bit down she pushes me up and I do it the other side.
“So we are a nice couple and we help each other, so I’m really pleased that she’s on my side.”
For now, it seems Georgina is trying to be as strong as she can for the sake of herself and her family.
She says: “Life’s hard, life goes on. I have reasons to move on and be strong. My priority right now is my family and my children. I’m so happy and thankful.”
Having taken on the mother role for all of Ronaldo’s children, Georgina says she feels “like a super mum, and Superwoman”.
But for now at least, it doesn’t sound as if they will be having any more kids.
Ronaldo, the all-time leading goal scorer in men’s football, has said that he and Georgina are content with their family set-up and plan to enjoy their time with their children while they are little.
He said: “I’m not thinking more kids now, I think we are done, but we never know the future, only God knows.
“But right now we all want to have a break to enjoy these ones because they are little. We want to enjoy a little bit of these ones. Let’s see in the future.”
However, marriage does sound like it is on the cards, as Ronaldo says it would be his mum Maria’s dream to see him and Georgina walk down the aisle.
“We’ll be (married) one day, for sure,” he said.
“It’s my mum’s dream as well, so one day. Why not? It’s great.”
And he said of Georgina: “She’s my friend. We have conversations. I open the heart for her and she opens the heart for me.
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“I’m not thinking now about that but I can see in the future I think I deserve, she deserves.
“But it’s something that’s not coming now in my plans but in the future is yes, I want.”
Tearful Georgina breaks down on the show
Georgina and Cristiano united in 2019Credit: Splash News More