Cristiano Ronaldo, 38, is arguably one of the most famous and talented professional soccer players across the globe. More than just a gifted professional athlete, Ronaldo has also won several accolades that deem him one of the most popular players among fans.
The trajectory of his career has seen him win 6 out of the 11 nominations he received for Kids’ Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, and ESPY Awards. Ronaldo is also a Guinness World Record breaker.
Last year and the year before that, he broke records for scoring the most goals in the men’s international category, and he was the first player to score goals at five different World Cups. In addition to his countless professional achievements, Ronaldo has been listed as the most followed famous figure on Instagram, with a whopping 612 million followers.
Ronaldo has acquitted himself as nothing short of being an incredible success story throughout his life. However, if it were not for his mother, Dolores Aveiro, changing her mind on a vital life decision, the world would have never known Ronaldo in the first place.
Dolores Aveiro during a press conference for her autobiography in Madrid, Spain on April 27, 2016 | Source: Getty Images
Before the world came to know the legend Ronaldo, Aveiro very nearly made a decision that would have ended his life before it even began. When she fell pregnant with her superstar son, she confessed:
“He was a child that I wanted to abort.”
Cristiano Ronaldo during the Euro Final: Portugal vs. Greece in Lisbon, Portugal on July 4, 2004 | Source: Getty Images
Having been refused by doctors for help to terminate her pregnancy, Aveiro decided to take matters into her own hands. She explained how she resorted to heavy exercise and drinking homemade beer concoctions of warm ale to help with the attempted abortion.
Ronaldo and his mom share a beautiful, close, and enduring relationship, which has seen them love and support each other as mother and son through thick and thin.
However, her methods did not work, and so she ended up giving birth to a baby boy who would soon become one of the world’s greatest soccer players of all time. Of things not going according to her initial plan, Aveiro disclosed:
“God didn’t want that to happen, and I was blessed because of that.”
When Aveiro was asked what her famous son’s thoughts were after he learned about what would have happened to him, she said that he was able to joke about it, which also implies that Ronaldo ended up forgiving her. Of how her son reacted, Aveiro revealed:
“He told me when he found out, ‘Look mum, you wanted to abort and now I’m the one who’s pulling the purse-strings in the house.”
Years following her decision to have Ronaldo and after his star was on the rise, Aveiro was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. As a result, she had to have a lump removed from one of her breasts in the same year’s summer.
Dolores Aveiro at a Portuguese Cup match in Almada, Portugal on October 18, 2019 | Source: Getty Images
Reports stipulated that she then followed her surgery with a course of radiotherapy and took medication to help keep the chronic illness at bay. She had fortunately beaten the disease, but her health woes returned.
Dolores Aveiro at the world premiere of “Ronaldo” in London, England on November 9, 2015 | Source: Getty Images
In 2019, before she traveled to Italy to celebrate her son’s 35th birthday, Aveiro admitted that she had been enduring new health complications. Of her health update, she divulged:
Though she has been facing a challenging time amid health scares, Aveiro has luckily had her doting son by her side throughout. In fact, in 2009, after she managed to beat cancer, Ronaldo donated an impressive £100,000 to the hospital that saved his mom’s life so they could build a cancer center.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Dolores Aveiro at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Award ceremony in Zürich, Switzerland on January 12, 2015 | Source: Getty Images
Another media outlet reported that he also donated £120,000 to the Portugal-based care center that looked after Aveiro following her diagnosis. In 2020, Ronaldo dropped everything to rush to Dr Nelio Mendonca Hospital to be at his mom’s side in Madeira when she suffered a stroke.
According to sources, Aveiro’s stroke was caused by a blood clot that blocked a blood vessel in the brain (the most common form of a stroke). Aveiro was then treated via a mechanical thrombectomy and was said to be resting after recovery, though she and her family had to await further testing to evaluate her condition.
Everything Aveiro and the professional athlete have been through together has only strengthened their close bond as mother and son. They have come a long way since Aveiro nearly made that fateful decision that would have changed the entire course of both her and her son’s lives.
Just like Ronaldo has been there for his mom throughout her health woes, Aveiro has been there for her son, cheering him on relentlessly at his games, like when she cried tears of joy when he scored two out of the four goals in his team’s victory against Newcastle United. However, she also tends to get very nervous about his games at times, but her doting son reassures her that everything will be ok:
“It’s only a football game, nothing else…take it easy. No worries. No worries…”
Apart from supporting her son and his endeavors, Aveiro is also a doting grandmother. She previously spoke about one of her grandchildren (Ronaldo’s first son) and said the following about him:
“He doesn’t have anybody apart from his father and me…”
On her social media page, viewers are met with a plethora of endearing pictures of Aveiro spending time with her grandchildren. Several posts, ensuring her grandkids are well fed or protectively watching over them, show how happy Aveiro is when she is with her beloved family, especially her grandkids.
Aveiro now showers her grandchildren with the same love and affection she showered Ronaldo and his siblings with when they were growing up.
