Global popstar Shakira is gearing up for her first album release since 2017. She recently addressed her split with the soccer player Gerard Piqué for the first time after three months. The former couple share two sons Milan, 9 and Sasha, 7.
"I've remained quiet and just tried to process it all," Shakira told Elle magazine in the publication's October cover story. "Um, and yeah, it's hard to talk about it, especially because I'm still going through it, and because I'm in the public eye and because our separation is not like a regular separation. And so it's been tough not only for me, but also for my kids. Incredibly difficult."
"I have paparazzi camping outside, in front of my house, 24/7," she added. "And there's not a place where I can hide from them with my kids, except for my own house. You know, we can't take a walk in the park like a regular family or go have an ice cream or do any activity without paparazzi following us. So it's hard."
Shakira, who is also facing tax fraud charges in Spain, claimed she has been trying “to protect” her children from the paparazzi “because that's my number one mission in life. But then they hear things in school from their friends or they come across some disagreeable, unpleasant news online, and it just affects them, you know?"
"Sometimes I just feel like this is all a bad dream and that I'm going to wake up at some point," she further told the outlet. "It's real. And what's also real is the disappointment to see something as sacred and as special as I thought was the relationship I had with my kids' father and see that turned into something vulgarized and cheapened by the media.”
“And all of this while my dad has been in the ICU and I've been fighting on different fronts,” she continued. “This is probably the darkest hour of my life,” she said adding that her sons are the priority right now. “I need to become an example for my kids.”
The former couple announced their split in a joint statement issued in early June 2022. The duo started dating in 2010 after they met on the set of Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” music video.
