"90% of accidents are caused by people. And 90% of people are caused by accidents."

[fpb]

The footballer Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal - one of the great stars of the game - has announced through the Internet that a one-night stand he had in the USA has ended up with the woman getting pregnant; she has kept the baby, and Ronaldo promises that he will take in his child and do his duty as a father. Well. I can't excuse the man's casual sex, but how many people accept the responsibility and its results as he has?

Comments

[sanscouronne.livejournal.com]

Prince Albert of Monaco did...twice. Maybe men who (for PR purposes) cannot afford to be deadbeat dads?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

So they take out one or two notes from their thick rolls and tell the lady to get in touch with the nearest Planned Parenthood. Who'd notice? I am certain that if Ronaldo did a straw poll among his own teammates, he would find more than one who has done just that.

To my mind, however, the most significant thing about this is that he not only saw fit to provide for the child, but also to take it in and act as a father. That means giving not only money - a comparatively small consideration to a top sportsman - but time and care, which are in rather shorter supply.

[sanscouronne.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong--I do agree with you. It is indeed exceptional behavior, especially the willingness to actually father the child. But I also think that a woman carrying the child of a famous/wealthy father would be much less likely to abort, or even desire to do so, even if given the financial resources to do so. It would be much more tempting to publicly shame the famous father in order to extract money, or fame. (This is a very cynical perception of women...)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

And coming from a woman, probably correct. I think we agree and we might leave it here.

[kikei.livejournal.com]

A dear friend of mine, Patrick, found himself in a similar situation - his girlfriend became pregnant, and he married the woman because he wanted to 'do the right' thing. Despite the fact that he finds it difficult to support not only his wife and daughter but also his wife's first child, who he has adopted as his own, he never even once thought about telling his wife to abort, and marrying her to make sure there was a stable environment for the child was not a hard decision to make. the hardest part of it has been the fact that his mother has practically disowned him (she had even advised him to just not marry the woman so he would not need to have any ties to her or a 'child of sin'). and a large number of his 'friends' were astounded that he didn't just have the child aborted.