Cristiano Ronaldo and Daniel Craig - A right to privacy?

Editor’s Note: “Cristiano Ronaldo: All Access” debuts 1630 GMT on Friday 16 November

Story highlights

Cristiano Ronaldo struggling to protect his right to privacy

Ronaldo: "We are famous and we have to deal with that"

Jose Mourinho told CNN: "I hate my social life" Daniel Craig has seen his privacy eroded since taking James Bond role

Daniel Craig has seen his privacy eroded since taking James Bond role

CNN  — 

James Bond - licence to kill. Cristiano Ronaldo – licence to thrill.

One has brought down tyrants, saved Queen and country and entertained generations of fans for over 50 years.

The other has produced moments of magic which have defied all logic with a right foot more deadly than Bond’s Walter PPK gun.

But neither 007 nor CR7, have worked out a way to combat their latest enemy - an invasion of privacy.

It’s a topic which has left Daniel Craig, the man who produced a stellar performance as Bond in the recent Skyfall epic, both shaken and stirred.

Craig, who first played Bond six years ago in Casino Royale, has seen his life change irreversibly with his public life now constantly afflicted.

Culture shock

While Ronaldo may enjoy a life of glamor, the fact that he cannot even pop out to his local McDonalds without being bothered continues to irk him.

His very public relationship with Russian model Irina Shayk, a celebrity in her own right, has brought extra attention to one of the football’s most famous faces.

Both men have their photos plastered across billboards worldwide, their pictures on television commercials broadcast around the globe and their private lives played out on the internet.

So why do the likes of Craig and Ronaldo, who make millions of dollars from their public image, believe they deserve privacy?

For the 27-year-old Real Madrid superstar, who hails from the quiet and picturesque island of Madeira, it has come as something of a culture shock.

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“Yeah, of course,” Ronaldo told CNN after being asked whether he wished he could lead a normal life.

“Not just now, but the last five, six years.

“Sometimes I wish to go somewhere, shopping, McDonalds… not a great example, or to have coffee and people recognize me.

“We are famous and we have to deal with that.”

Smart phones

With the advanced technology of smart phones and the advent of Twitter and other social media networks, stars are far more cautious when stepping out of their front doors.

For Craig, who undertook huge lengths to keep his wedding to fellow film star Rachel Weisz a complete secret, the right to privacy is key.

“How could I go into a pub and have a few pints of Guinness and get a bit rowdy and sing a few songs when some tw*t’s going to film me and put it all over the internet?” Craig was recently quoted as saying in the British media.

“The difference, and this has changed rapidly in about 10 years, is smart phones.

“They are the f***ing bane of my life. I get people who just take pictures of me with their camera phone while I’m having dinner. I want to get violent and I can’t.

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“They think it’s their right to take a photo of me and I find that incredibly intrusive. But every phone has a camera on it, so how do we stop it? We can’t.”

Risk

It seems as if nobody in the world of celebrities is untouchable with the Duchess of Cambridge just one of the most recent high profile scandals.

The Princess, who was on vacation in France at the time, was snapped by a paparazzo while topless with the photos eventually being published in a French magazine.

That case caused a furore and brought up the question of whether those in the public eye have the right to privacy.

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The Leveson inquiry, which looked into the culture, practices and ethics of the press, allowed celebrities such as Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller to reveal the harassment they had encountered while in the public eye.

But there are those who believe that celebrities can still live a normal life without being encroached upon.

“You can avoid it if you don’t crave the attention,” said PR guru Max Clifford.

For every sports star like Ronaldo, there is a Paul Scholes or Xabi Alonso, both of whom manage to stay out of the media eye with little fuss.

The key, according to Clifford, is awareness and caution.

“Everyone out there now has phones and can take pictures, in a way, everyone is the press now but you’ve just got to be sensible,” he added.

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“If you don’t want to be seen with somebody, then don’t take the risk.

“I’ve told clients over and over again, you can’t expect the media to build you up and help your career and then turn around and complain about the attention.

“For famous people, it’s part of life and you just have to get used to it and deal with it.”

Havoc

Dealing with it sounds simple but it can prove far more difficult, depending how high up you are on the fame scale.

Even the ‘Special One’, Jose Mourinho, has found it difficult to cope with the intrusion into his private life since leading Porto to Champions League glory in 2004.

Mourinho’s world has been turned upside down by the constant attention on Real both in Spain and abroad since moving to Madrid in 2010.

‘I hate my social life,’ says Mourinho

It has wreaked havoc on his personal life and that of his wife and two children.

“I hate my social life,” Mourinho told CNN in an exclusive interview.

“I hate not to be a normal father who goes with his son to the son’s football match and being there with the other 20 fathers there watching the game.

“I’m at a football match of kids and I have to be there. The people have to come for photos; the people have to come for autographs; the people have to come to insult me; the people have to go behind the goal of my kid and insult my kid of 12.

“So, you know, I would love to be with my family in the street as a normal person and I can’t, so I am a completely different person in my private life.”

But for now Mourinho, like Ronaldo and Craig, must endure, as they continue their constant battle to secure a right to privacy.