Hundreds of fans flocked to a fake wedding of Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez.
On the 8th in Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira, rumors spread that Ronaldo and his long-time partner Georgina Rodríguez were getting married. Reports that the two would hold a grand wedding in Ronaldo's hometown prompted fans and tourists to converge on the three main cathedrals in downtown Funchal.
Ronaldo's family had already publicly denied the weekend wedding rumors. But the rumors did not die down easily. As reports continued that Ronaldo, captain of the Portugal national team, had prepared a large-scale wedding in his hometown attended by celebrities, numerous fans gathered in front of the cathedral to see the actual wedding.
But as time passed, a strange situation unfolded. A wedding was indeed taking place at the cathedral, but the bride was not Georgina. The person waiting as the groom was not Ronaldo either.
The bride was a woman named Nicole, who had arrived at the cathedral to marry her fiancé Fabio. Fans who had been waiting for Ronaldo and Georgina's wedding realized they were at the wedding of a completely different couple only when they saw the bride enter the cathedral.
The Funchal Cathedral also confirmed the situation via its official Facebook page. The cathedral conveyed congratulations to Nicole and Fabio and said, "There was great confusion as many reporters and tourists gathered in the street, but in the end we were able to close the church and proceed with the wedding."
Another post, accompanying a photo of bride Nicole entering the cathedral, said, "This is the first time we've seen something like this at the three cathedrals. Because of the large number of people, it was very difficult even for the bride to enter the cathedral for the wedding." Actual guests, suddenly finding themselves at what seemed to be the wedding of a global soccer star, instead showed smiles.
One guest joked in an interview with local media, "It feels like we've become celebrities," adding, "It's surprising that some people thought Ronaldo would appear at today's wedding without security."
Ronaldo himself took the absurd commotion in good humor. He reacted directly to related posts uploaded to social media by local media, leaving a crying-laughing emoji repeatedly. Actual wedding plans for Ronaldo and Georgina have not yet been made public.
The two got engaged in August last year. At the time, Ronaldo presented Georgina with a substantial diamond ring, and estimates suggested the gem could be up to 30 carats and worth as much as $5 million (about 700 million won).
Global attention is focused on whether and when the two will marry, but Ronaldo has not yet announced a specific wedding date.
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