Ronaldo Didn't Marry: Another Couple Wed in Funchal

Hundreds of people, journalists and tourists gathered on Saturday, August 8, in the square outside the cathedral in Funchal, after word spread that Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez were secretly getting married there. A wedding really was taking place inside the church. The bride and groom, though, were Nicole and Fabio.

Portuguese and foreign outlets had spent days reporting that the couple would stand at the altar in Madeira that Saturday. The ceremony was said to start at 3 p.m., with the reception planned at the five star Savoy Palace hotel. Reports also claimed two floors and the bar area of that hotel had been blocked off for August 7 and 8. Funchal is Ronaldo’s hometown, which gave the story a logic that audiences accepted at once.

The first sign something was off came from Instagram. While the supposed ceremony was meant to be underway, Georgina Rodriguez kept posting to her profile without a break. A secret wedding and live posting simply don’t line up.

Who Actually Got Married in the Cathedral

After the ceremony, Funchal Cathedral posted photos of the real bride and groom on social media and described what their wedding had gone through. The church said it had to be closed just to let the ceremony happen at all.

“After the chaos on the street with so many journalists and tourists, we finally managed to close the church and celebrate,” the cathedral wrote in its post.

Nicole and Fabio ended up with a wedding they never planned for. A crowd that had come for someone else was waiting outside, and their photos reached media outlets in several countries within hours.

What Ronaldo’s Sister Said

Elma Aveiro, Ronaldo’s sister, publicly weighed in on the whole situation. She shared a photo on Instagram of the crowd outside the cathedral, captioning it with just “Surreal” and a see no evil monkey emoji. She then posted footage of the crowd and addressed the media coverage directly.

“People don’t get that the media doesn’t know anything, they want to know?! So they make it up,” Elma Aveiro wrote.

That remains the only comment from the family so far. Neither Ronaldo nor Rodriguez has said anything about Saturday’s gathering.

The Third Failed Wedding Story in Eight Days

Funchal isn’t the first miss. This is the third version of the same wedding rumor to collapse in under ten days:

• August 1, a rumor the couple would marry in Sintra, which turned out to be false
• last weekend, speculation triggered by an alleged invitation shown on Portuguese television, also denied
• August 8, Funchal Cathedral, where a different couple got married

Three locations, three dates, not one confirmation. What they share is that none of the dates ever came from the couple themselves, but from a chain of retelling where each new outlet added one more detail.

When the Wedding Might Realistically Happen

An official date is still unknown. Ronaldo and Rodriguez have been together since 2016, when they met in Madrid, and engaged since August 2025. He’s 41, she’s 32, and together they’re raising five children.

The calendar works against a wedding anytime soon. Ronaldo returns to Al Nassr training in a few weeks, under a contract that runs through 2027, and a season in Saudi Arabia leaves little room for an international wedding with guests flying in from several countries. A more realistic window is the end of the year or later.

Until then, every church booking on Madeira will draw suspicion. Nicole and Fabio paid for that on their own big day.