The wife of former Brazil and Spartak Moscow striker Luiz Adriano has spoken of "hell on earth" and admitted she had to learn to ignore chilling daily messages promising to find and hurt her after she married the star last year.
Ekaterina Dorozhko met Adriano during his two-year spell at former Russian Premier League champions Spartak Moscow, enjoying a passionate romance with the striker that has continued since the pair married at the end of last year.
The fashion fan and model has revealed that she endured a campaign of racial abuse after moving to Brazil when Adriano joined Palmeiras last summer, calling the discrimination and threats she received "very painful".
"In the beginning, when I went to football in Brazil, people shouted 'look, the Russian is coming", said Dorozhko, recalling how the taunts she initially experienced quickly became sinister.
"Every day, for a long time, I received messages where they wished me death, wished illness on my parents and promised to find me, beat me and many other terrible things because I am married to a black man."
Signaling her support for protestors in the US, where thousands of people have been arrested amid escalating tensions over racially-motivated police brutality, Dorozhko said the situtation "makes my head hurt" and suggested that her own predicament had improved.
"I'm lucky because I have nerves of steel and I stopped paying attention," she explained in a post to her following of more than 217,000 on Instagram.
"I thank my parents for my education and my view of the world. I have never separated people by skin color, hair color or status. For me, we are all the same.
"Half of my family is black and I love them all so much. I was afraid that they would not accept me because I am Russian and I have a different mentality and my whole life is very different.
"Why is there so much cruelty in people? After all, love and friendship knows no color. If hell and paradise exist, then hell is here on Earth. I wish and dream that we all become kinder and wiser because the future depends on us."
Multicultural Adriano, who has three black children from a previous marriage, once said he would have accepted an invitation to play for Ukraine before making four appearances for Brazil as he became Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk's all-time leading scorer.
He joined Shakhtar from Brazilian club Internacional for more than $3.3 million in 2007 and established himself as a prolific force, equaling Barcelona striker Lionel Messi's record of five goals in a Champions League match and matching Portugal icon Cristiano Ronaldo's then-record of nine goals in the group stage of the competition.
Dorozhko frequently posts photos of the pair showing their affection for each other in various states of undress on social media. Earlier this year, she shared a portrait of herself with the topless 33-year-old, adding: "In a hundred lifetimes, I'll always choose you."
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