Shakira paused her success for her relationship with ex Gerard Piqué.
In an interview published on Saturday, March 16, the singer spoke about her former relationship, which ended in 2022.
“For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football,” Shakira, 47, shared, referencing her former lover’s professional soccer career. “There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
As OK! previously reported, in September 2023 Shakira — who previously lived with Gerard and their two kids in Barcelona — detailed how she put her music on the back burner.
"The thing is, I was dedicated to him. To the family, to him. It was very difficult for me to attend to my professional career while in Barcelona. It was complicated logistically to get a collaborator there," the blonde beauty told Billboard. "I had to wait for agendas to coincide or for someone to deign to come. I couldn’t leave my children and just go somewhere to make music outside my house. It was hard to maintain the rhythm."
"Sometimes I had ideas I couldn’t lock down. Right now, I have an idea and I can immediately collaborate with whomever I want to. Something inescapable about Miami, Los Angeles, the U.S. in general is I have the logistical and technical support, the resources, the tools, the people," she added. "Living in Spain, all that was on hold."
Shakira now co-parents sons Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9, with Gerard, whose affair allegedly brought the relationship to its demise.
Though she is able to release music much faster these days, Shakira admitted, "Sometimes I think being a single mom and the rhythm of a pop star aren’t compatible."
"I have to put my kids to bed, go to the recording studio; everything is uphill," she said. "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."
The mother-of-two expressed how her ex’s affair with Clara Chia Marti, 24, was extremely disappointing, though she believes she’s made the best of her situation.
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"I believed in 'till death do us part. I believed that dream, and I had that dream for myself, for my children," she explained. “My parents have been together, I don’t know, 50 years, and they love each other like the first day, with a love that’s unique and unrepeatable. … And it has always been my example. It’s what I wanted for myself and my children, but it didn’t happen. If life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade. That’s what I’m doing: making lemonade.”
The Sunday Times interviewed Shakira.
