When Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez announced their engagement this month, two things stood out: the outsized diamond ring, and their unmarried cohabitation in conservative Saudi Arabia.

The celebrity couple and their blended brood of five children have been living in the birthplace of Islam for more than two years, untroubled by laws against extra-marital relationships.

Their situation highlights the fact that while authorities now turn a blind eye for foreigners, such privileges remain off-limits for Saudis, who must still get married before living together.

Foreign couples, including Muslims, can now move in together or stay at hotels without being married, an arrangement that has only been tolerated in recent times.

It's "part of a broader social transformation in Saudi A

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