According to a report, Shakira found Gerard Piqué sleeping with another woman.
Madrid:
Colombian superstar Shakira and FC Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué announced on Saturday that they were asking for time for their relationship of 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 hero Piqué, 35, won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship, and has won the Champions League three times with Barcelona.
The couple share two children and have been living together on the outskirts of Barcelona for years.
“We regret to confirm that we are separated. For the welfare of our children, who are our highest priority, we demand respect for (our) privacy,” they said in a statement.
With her mix of Latin and Arabic rhythms and rock influence, the three-time Grammy-winning Shakira is one of the biggest stars in Latin America, with world hits with songs like “Hips don’t Lie” and “Whenever, Wherever.”
In 2020, he starred with Jennifer Lopez in the half-time show of the NFL Super Bowl Championship Final in Miami, 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 being tried in Spain for tax fraud after a Barcelona court rejected an appeal by the singer.
The Spanish prosecution accuses him of having defrauded the Spanish tax office with 14.5 million euros (15.5 million dollars) of income obtained between 2012 and 2014.
He is said to have moved to Spain in 2011 when his relationship with Piqué was made public, but he maintained his official tax residence in the Bahamas until 2015.
His defense lawyers say he only moved to Spain full-time in 2015 and insist that his “conduct in tax matters has always been impeccable in all countries where he had to pay taxes.”
In an interview with AFP in 2019, Shakira said that the temporary loss of her voice two years earlier had been “the darkest moment of her life” and affected her “deeply”.
He later regained his voice naturally, without having to undergo surgery as recommended by doctors, and later toured the world in 2018.
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