Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister, Katia Aveiro, has addressed criticism surrounding her brother’s absence from the funeral of late Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, which took place over the weekend at the Igreja Matriz church in Gondomar.
Ronaldo was notably absent from the ceremony, prompting backlash from many fans in Portugal who expected the national team captain to attend and pay his respects.
However, in a heartfelt message shared on Instagram, Aveiro suggested that Ronaldo stayed away to avoid creating a media circus that could have overshadowed the solemnity of the occasion.
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She condemned the public outrage, urging people to focus on the tragic loss of Jota and his brother, André, rather than Ronaldo’s absence. Aveiro also reflected on her personal experience of loss, recalling how overwhelming the attention was when she and Ronaldo lost their father in 2005.
“When my father died, on top of our grief, we had to deal with cameras and crowds everywhere,” she wrote. “Even back then, when media access wasn’t what it is today, we couldn’t leave the chapel until the burial due to the chaos.”
She continued, “There were national figures at the funeral—presidents, coaches like Luís Filipe Scolari—but I don’t remember any of them. Grief consumed us.”
Aveiro ended her message with a strong rebuke of the criticism aimed at Ronaldo, calling it “shameful and absurd” that media and fans are fixated on his absence instead of showing compassion for a grieving family.
“If anyone messages me to criticize my brother, I’ll block them. The fanaticism is exhausting,” she wrote. “It’s disgraceful that so much attention is being placed on who wasn’t there instead of mourning a family shattered by unimaginable loss.”
