Georgina Rodriguez met Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016. Getty Images
Georgina Rodriguez met Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016. Getty Images
Georgina Rodriguez met Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016. Getty Images
Georgina Rodriguez met Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016. Getty Images

Netflix's I Am Georgina shows Cristiano Ronaldo lighting up Burj Khalifa for Rodriguez


Sophie Prideaux
  • English
  • Arabic

Season two of Netflix’s I Am Georgina, a reality series that follows the life of Cristiano Ronaldo’s girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez, will be released on Friday.

The show, filmed last year before the couple’s move to Saudi Arabia, follows Rodriguez’s jet-setting lifestyle, including a family trip to Dubai, as well as stints in Lapland and Cannes.

Rodriguez also opens up about the loss of one of her twins, a son named Angel, during childbirth last April.

In a two-minute trailer for the series, Rodriguez says she had “the best moment and the worst moment of her life in an instant”.

“Life goes on,” a tearful Rodriguez says in the clip. “Cris really encouraged me to continue with my agenda. He said: ‘Gio, get on with life. It’ll do you good’.

“Right now my priority is my family and my children,” she said. “I am really happy and very grateful.”

The trailer also shows her saying she is “hard to surprise”, before a clip of Burj Khalifa lighting up with a birthday message for her during a trip to Dubai.

Cristiano Ronaldo surprised Georgina Rodriguez on her birthday with a message on Burj Khalifa. Photo: Georgina Rodriguez / Instagram
Cristiano Ronaldo surprised Georgina Rodriguez on her birthday with a message on Burj Khalifa. Photo: Georgina Rodriguez / Instagram

Joined by her mother, children and Ronaldo, the family watch on a rooftop opposite the world’s tallest building in Downtown Dubai.

The six-part series also shows her meeting pop star Rosalia, attending Cannes Film Festival and doing a photo shoot with a Ferrari.

Rodriguez, who is the biological mother of two of Ronaldo’s five children, also describes herself as “supermum” and “superwoman” in the trailer, which shows her enjoying plenty of time with the family.

The couple now live together in Saudi Arabia after Ronaldo signed a deal to play with Al Nassr.

Since the move, the couple have been enjoying their life in the kingdom from a lavish suite at Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh, and have shared several snippets on social media.

Where did Rodriguez grow up?

Rodriguez is from Jaca, a city in north-eastern Spain. It is located close to the border of France and 460km from Madrid.

"Jaca is the place where I grew up," she says in season one of I Am Georgina, revisiting her home town and strolling through the streets with her family. "It's changed. But it's where I danced, and enjoyed the love of my family. All of that left a mark on me.

"It's very important not to forget where I come from. I know what it's like not to have anything and what it's like to have it all."

She has also lived in Bristol, England, where she spent time working as an au pair.

How did Rodriguez meet Ronaldo?

Rodriguez met Ronaldo, who she describes as her "Prince Charming", in 2016, when she was working at a Gucci store in Madrid. Ronaldo played for Real Madrid from 2009 until 2018.

“His height, his body, his beauty caught my attention. I was trembling in front of him, but a spark ignited,” she told Grazia in 2020.

“I am very shy and perhaps this stirred me more in front of a person who, with one glance, had touched me deeply. Then after, the way Cristiano treats me, cares for me and loves me did the rest.”

Rodriguez's Saudi style — in pictures

Tamkeen's offering
  • Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
  • Option 2: 50% across three years
  • Option 3: 30% across five years 
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What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
 
  • Grade 9 = above an A*
  • Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
  • Grade 7 = grade A
  • Grade 6 = just above a grade B
  • Grade 5 = between grades B and C
  • Grade 4 = grade C
  • Grade 3 = between grades D and E
  • Grade 2 = between grades E and F
  • Grade 1 = between grades F and G
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Price, base: Dh1,731,672

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Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic

Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm

Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm

Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km

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Director:Guillermo del Toro

Stars:Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara

Rating: 3/5

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

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Gender pay parity on track in the UAE

The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.

"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."

Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.

"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.

As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general. 

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Antonio Muñoz Molina

Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez

Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)

Company%20profile
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Publisher: EA Sports

Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S

Rating: 3/5

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- Andy Murray (1) v Benoit Paire, Centre Court (not before 4pm)

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Name: Younis Al Balooshi

Nationality: Emirati

Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn

Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design

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Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

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Updated: March 24, 2023, 9:12 AM