Video: Irina opens up on marriage and family
Laden down with gifts and wrapping paper, Irina Shayk, the Russian model girlfriend of Cristiano Ronaldo, looks like she's already well prepared for Valentine's Day. The 25-year-old beauty was spotted leaving an exclusive store in New York. A teddy bear in one of the bags seemed to suggest that she had thought of the Portuguese football star's son Cristiano junior too.
Perhaps it's gestures such as these that keep their year-long relationship special – despite the constant travelling that comes with their busy careers. It was thought the romance might fizzle out following the news that he'd fathered a child with an unknown woman shortly before they began dating. But Sports Illustrated Swimwear beauty Irina – who was introduced to the sports hunk during an Armani underwear campaign – stuck by him. The couple have plenty in common. Both started out from humble beginnings and went on to enjoy fame and fortune, which they try to share with others.
Cristiano, the son of a cook and a municipal gardener, has donated money to relief efforts for the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami and travelled to Aceh, Indonesia to raise funds for the victims. Meanwhile, Irina from a mining settlement in western Russia, grew up in poverty after her father, a miner, died when she was 14.Her modelling career has enabled the big-hearted covergirl to build a maternity hospital in her hometown and contribute to charities for sick children.