Pop star Shakira splits from soccer player Gerard Pique after 12 years

Madrid:

Colombian star Shakira and Barcelona defender Gerard Pique announced, Saturday, that they are calling for the time spent in their relationship for more than a decade.

The 45-year-old singer “Hips Don’t Lie” is one of the biggest names in the global music industry and has sold over 60 million albums.

Spanish football champion Pique, 35, won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship, winning the Champions League three times with Barcelona.

The couple share two sons and have been living together for years in the suburbs of Barcelona.

“We regret to confirm that we are separating. For the welfare of our children, who are our top priority, we ask that our privacy be respected,” they said in a statement.

With her blend of Latin and Arabic rhythms and rock influence, three Grammy Award winner Shakira is one of the biggest stars from Latin America, recording international hits with songs like “Hips don’t Lie” and “whenever, Wherever”.

In 2020, she performed with Jennifer Lopez on the halftime show of the NFL Championship Final in Miami, which is usually one of the most watched half-hours on American television.

The couple announced their separation just over a week after Spanish court documents brought Shakira closer to trial in Spain for tax fraud after a Barcelona court rejected the singer’s appeal.

Spanish prosecutors accuse her of defrauding the Spanish tax office out of 14.5 million euros ($15.5 million) in income earned between 2012 and 2014.

They say she moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with Pique became public but maintained official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.

Her defense lawyers say she only moved to Spain full-time in 2015 and insist her “behaviour in tax matters has always been impeccable in all countries where she has had to pay taxes”.

In an interview with AFP in 2019, Shakira said that losing her voice temporarily two years ago was the “darkest moment of her life” and affected her “severely”.

She later regained her voice normally, without having to undergo surgery as recommended by doctors, and subsequently toured the world in 2018.

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