From Scathing Lyrics to Casio Watches: A Timeline of Shakira and Gerard Piqué’s Separation
CALL IT THE battle of Shakira and Gerard Piqué. The cheating allegations, the viral songs, the cryptic Instagram posts — the Colombian pop star and the retired FC Barcelona player have been making headlines for months as their messy separation plays out in public.
The couple famously met back in 2010 on the set of “Waka Waka,” the song Shakira wrote for the FIFA World Cup that year (Piqué appears in the video.) The two made their relationship official some time later. They had their first son Milan in January 2013 and their second son Sasha in 2014.
But in June 2022, Shakira and Piqué announced their separation after 11 years together. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of headlines, interviews, and chart-topping songs as the couple deals with the aftermath of their public breakup. Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened since Piqué and Shakira went their own ways:
June 2022: Shakira and Piqué announce their separation
On June 4, 2022, days after Spain’s El Periodico reported that Piqué wasn’t living with Shakira and their children, the couple announced that their 11-year relationship had come to an end.
“We regret to confirm that we are separating,” the couple said in a joint statement. “We ask for privacy at this moment for the well-being of our children, who are our maximum priority. Thank you in advance for your understanding and respect.”
El Periodico claimed that they had made the decision to separate after Piqué was allegedly caught cheating.
September 2022: Shakira calls the post-breakup period her “darkest hour”
Several months after the couple confirmed their split, Shakira appeared on the cover of Elle magazine and opened up about the breakup following what she called a “total circus” of tabloid gossip.
“I’ve remained quiet and just tried to process it all. 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,” she told the magazine in September 2022. “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. And there’s not a place where I can hide from them with my kids, except for my own house.”
She added, “I’ve tried to conceal the situation in front of my kids. I try to do it and protect them, 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?”
She shared that her father had been ill at the same time, and described the period as “one of the most difficult, darkest hours of my life.”
October 2022: Shakira releases “Monotonía” with Ozuna
Shakira alluded to the end of her relationship with Piqué in the lyrics and video for “Monotonía.” In the song, Shakira laments a romance that just became too routine: “No fue culpa tuya/Ni tampoco mía/Fue culpa de la monotonía,” she sings on the track. (“It wasn’t your fault nor mine/It was monotony’s fault.)
The video follows Shakira as she walks around town looking for her missing (literal) heart, even as people trample over it in the street, indicating major heartbreak.