Two years after splitting from the father of her children, Gerard Piqué, Shakira has four major hits under her belt, as well as a VMAs Vanguard Award, and is getting ready to release her next album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry). But in a new interview, the Colombian singer—known for iconic tracks including “Hips Don’t Lie” “Beautiful Liar,” and “Waka Waka”—recalls her decision to embark on a yearslong hiatus from music to support Piqué in his professional soccer career and raise their two sons, Milan and Sasha, now 10 and 8.
“For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so that he could play football,” she told The Times of London. “There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
Shakira met the Spanish soccer player on the set of the music video for “Waka Waka,” which she wrote for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in which Piqué and team Spain played the Netherlands to win the championship. The pair soon began dating and in 2013 welcomed Milan. Shakira and Piqué never married, but in September 2022, they shocked the world by announcing their separation after 11 years together. Soon after, Piqué went public with his new girlfriend, Clara Chia Martí (rumors said he’d begun dating her before splitting from Shakira)—and Shakira wrote four record-breaking revenge songs, even mentioning her ex’s new flame by name in one of them, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.”
“Empathy is key in an artist’s work. An athlete is in a constant state of war and has to avoid empathy at all costs,“ Shakira told The Times. “That’s why it’s probably a really bad idea for an artist to hook up with an athlete.”
In early 2023, the singer moved from Barcelona—where she lived with Piqué—to Miami with their sons. The relocation, she told Billboard last year, has helped her get back in her zone, musically, and get in touch with other music-world professionals and artists.
“Now I can release music at a faster clip, although sometimes I think being a single mom and the rhythm of a pop star aren’t compatible,” she told Billboard. “I have to put my kids to bed, go to the recording studio; everything is uphill. When you don’t have a husband who can stay home with the kids, it’s constant juggling, because I like to be a present mom and I need to be there every moment with my children: take them to school, have breakfast with them, take them to play dates. And aside from that, I have to make money.”
She added to the outlet that her career was her “third priority” when she lived in Europe with Piqué, as she “dedicated” her life to supporting him and caring for their kids. Now, not only has she involved her boys in her music (the two add their voices to a version of her 2023 ballad “Acróstico”), she also said she is learning from them every day. “They’re so loving and caring and they inspire me to be better, to be a better person just for them,” Shakira told Entertainment Tonight last fall. “They’re just the most amazing thing in my life. They’re everything to me.”
Rosa Sanchez is the senior news editor at Harper's Bazaar, working on news as it relates to entertainment, fashion, and culture. Previously, she was a news editor at ABC News and, prior to that, a managing editor of celebrity news at American Media. She has also written features for Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets.
