How Georgina Rodriguez went from £9.50 an hour nanny with cocaine kingpin dad to Ronaldo WAG with £80k a week allowance
SHE’S the super-glam ‘Queen Wag’ known for her love of jewels, jet-setting and leading a lavish lifestyle we could only dream of – but Georgina Rodríguez’s life wasn’t always that way.
While the 30-year-old is now accustomed to holidaying on yachts with her football legend beau Cristiano Ronaldo, and thinks nothing of splashing hundreds of thousands of pounds on handbags, at one point she led a much more simple life.
The beauty once had modest dreams of becoming a dancer, and in her early twenties worked as a £9.50 an hour au pair to make ends meet while she lived in the UK learning English, before later landing a sales assistant job in Madrid at high-end store, Gucci.
This career decision would prove to be fate – as it was in this role she met the love of her life – and consequently went from selling designer clobber to dressing head-to-toe in it herself.
For Georgina, it was always meant to be, with the mum-of-six previously saying: “I firmly believe in destiny but even more in karma. What you give, you receive.”
Here, we take a closer look at how Georgina’s life drastically changed after being plucked from relative obscurity to become one of the world’s most famous Wags…
Dad’s £100,000 cocaine plot
Now, Georgina is reportedly given an allowance of around £80k a month to play with by Cristiano, 39, who earns around £170m a year, but growing up, Georgina had a very modest upbringing.
Her late father Jorge was actually an Argentinian drugs kingpin who spent ten years in jail, and her mother – who generally stays out of the spotlight – is Spanish.
Jorge was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2003 when Georgina was just nine, for masterminding a failed plot to smuggle more than £100,000 worth of 83 per cent pure cocaine from Spain to France.
This meant it was just Georgina, her mother and older sister for much of her childhood, and while her father was freed on licence in 2008 he was soon back inside, again for drug smuggling.
Au pair earning £9.50 an hour
Georgina grew up in the small village of Jaca in northern Spain and never in a million years would have guessed where she would end up when she dreamed as a child of being a ballet dancer.
However as her parents were unable to afford dance school, Georgina had to change course, changing careers to modelling after studying English in London.
At one point in her teens, she worked as an au pair in Bristol, earning a reported £9.50 an hour.
When she moved back to Spain she landed a job at Gucci, in Madrid – and it was there she met Ronaldo.
At that time, she was living in a £250 converted storage room, admitting in her Netflix documentary she couldn’t afford to pay for heating or air conditioning, leaving her freezing in winter and baking in the summer.
‘He was so handsome, I felt embarrassed’
For Georgina, it was love at first sight when she met the footballer.
Describing the first time she set eyes on him, she said: “He’s such a handsome man.
“When I saw him he was so handsome I felt embarrassed to look at him.”
She also revealed the 2016 encounter was a chance meeting because she was supposed to have left the shop at 5pm and had only stayed later by chance to help a female client because a colleague was on holiday.
She was first spotted on a string of dates with then-Real Madrid superstar Ronaldo towards the end of 2016, and the pair made their first public appearance together in January 2017.
They tried to keep their relationship secret — but Real Madrid fans turned up at Georgina’s work to take photos of her.
Her bosses soon grew tired of the attention and she was dismissed in December 2016. She landed another job at a Prada store earning £1,000 a month plus commission — but fans followed her there too, forcing her to give up her retail career.
Georgina recalled: “They used to call up and ask about me, pretending to be clients.
“There were always photographers waiting for me. I started to be very uncomfortable.”
‘I go to bed really happy’
While her life got significantly more luxurious, the thing Georgina cherishes the most is the unbreakable bond she shares with the love of her life.
She gushed previously: “Cristiano is marvellous. He’s a wonderful father, a wonderful son, brother, friend and partner, boss and employee because he’s an employee as well.
“He’s fantastic in every sense of the word.
“Sometimes we’re at home eating and I look at him and think ‘How lucky I feel to be the one he’s chosen to create this wonderful family’ and I go to bed really happy.”
Ronaldo first became a dad in 2010 via surrogate to Cristiano Ronaldo Jr, then welcomed twins via surrogate in 2017, before having a daughter that same year with Georgina.
The couple announced they were having twins in 2021 – although one tragically didn’t survive.
Rodríguez & Ronaldo: Inside their romance
2015: Cristiano Ronaldo and supermodel Irina Shayk split up after five years together.
Late 2016: Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez meet while she’s working as a sales assistant at a Gucci store and begin dating.
January 2017: They make their first public appearance together.
June 2017: The couple become parents to twins, who were born via a surrogate.
July 2017: They announce Georgina is pregnant with Ronaldo’s fourth child.
November 2017: The loved-up couple welcome daughter, Alana Martina.
October 2021: They announce they are expecting twins – however they tragically later announce the loss of one of them, their baby boy they name Angel.
April 2022: They bring home their baby girl, who they call Bella Esmeralda.
March 2024: Georgina Rodriguez walked at Paris Fashion Week wearing a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired outfit.
£30k bar bills & £146k handbags
Of course, if the love of your life also happens to be a billionaire with a penchant for super-expensive flashy jewellery and sports cars, you’ll also be treated to some pretty top notch presents too.
The pair once racked up a £27k bill in Mayfair restaurant Scott’s in just 15 minutes, sharing a bottle of the Burgundy Richebourg Grand Cru wine – which can cost around £18,000 a bottle.
Georgina also loves to show off her extensive handbag collection, which is said to include a £146,000 crocodile Birkin bag.
Georgina is also incredibly generous in return of course, treating Cristiano to a customised Mercedes G-Class Brabus SUV worth a staggering £300,000 one birthday.
Married ‘one day, for sure’
While they’ve been together for over eight years, the pair are still yet to tie the knot – not that Georgina needs to worry about Ronaldo’s commitment, as it seems very firmly on the cards still.
In 2020, the superstar footballer reportedly forked out a whopping £615,000 on a rumoured engagement ring.
“We’ll be [married] one day, for sure,” he previously said confidently.
“It’s my mum’s dream as well. So, one day. Why not? It’s great. She’s my friend.
“We have conversations. I open the heart for her and she opens the heart for me.”
Luxury yachts & £14k a night getaways
Whether a lavish wedding is in the pipeline remains to be seen, but for now at least, the pair are content spending time together travelling the world via private jet.
The pair previously stayed in a £10,000-per-night mansion in Majorca with a helipad, tennis court, pool and spa, and have also regularly holidayed on their luxury 88ft £5.5m yacht.
They also love going to Greece, and once went to Costa Navarino – where they were said to have tipped staff a very generous £18,000.
They’ve also turned it into a business, adding a string of hotels and retreats to Ronaldo’s property portfolio.
They recently enjoyed a holiday on a luxury beach near their latest venture – a holiday resort on Ummahat Island in the Red Sea.
They took their family to the nearby St Regis Red Sea Resort, with a four-bed villa typically setting you back around £14,000 a night.
‘A lot of darkness but a lot of love’
Of course, while Georgina is incredibly grateful for her lot in life she has, sadly, also endured more than her fair share of hardship and grief.
While she’s a proud mum to a large brood, she’s also endured the anguish of suffering three miscarriages and devastatingly losing one of her twin babies too.
In April 2022 Georgina gave birth to twin Bella Esmeralda but tragically lost the other baby, a boy they called Angel.
She described that day as both the “best and worst moment” of her life, and speaking about that time she said: “There’s been a lot of darkness but a lot of love.
“My friends have been by my side and Cristiano of course. I’ve had the good fortune to share this tragedy with those closest to me which has also helped.”
