Professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner, Georgina Rodríguez, announced the death of their newborn son in a joint statement posted Monday on social media.
"It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away," Ronaldo and Rodríguez wrote on Twitter on Monday. "It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel."
The birth of their baby girl, the twin of their deceased baby boy, gives them the strength to live with "some hope and happiness," Ronaldo and Rodríguez wrote. The pair did not share a cause of death.
In October, Ronaldo and Rodríguez announced on social media they were expecting twins.
"Our baby boy, you are our angel," they wrote in the statement on Monday. "We will always love you."
Child mortality remains a global concern.
"The total number of under-5 deaths worldwide has declined from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5.0 million in 2020," the World Health Organization reports. "Since 1990, the global under-5 mortality rate has dropped by 60%, from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 37 in 2020. This is equivalent to 1 in 11 children dying before reaching age 5 in 1990, compared to 1 in 27 in 2020."
The United States' infant mortality (death before age 1) rate was 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.