Iranian authorities have denied reports claiming that Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is facing 99 lashes for hugging a woman in Iran.
The false claim stemmed from a meeting last month between Ronaldo and Fatemeh Hamami, an Iranian artist. Hamami, who holds a brush between her feet to paint portraits, shared a video of herself meeting Ronaldo on Instagram on September 20.
In the video, Ronaldo can be seen hugging and kissing Hamami on her forehead while receiving the portraits she had created of him.
After the meeting, multiple outlets including TMZ, the New York Post, and Fox Sports reported that Ronaldo was facing 99 lashes for hugging Hamami. The Post and TMZ cited unnamed Iranian media outlets in their reports. The reports claimed that Ronaldo, who has been dating model Georgina Rodriguez since 2017, had committed adultery by touching another woman.
The reports about the lashings, it turns out, were incorrect: The Iranian embassy in Spain said on October 13 that Ronaldo isn't facing any charges.
"We strongly deny the issuance of any court ruling against any international athlete in Iran," read the embassy's post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
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