Shakira and her longtime lover Gerard Piqué have announced their “separation”

• Shakira and Gerard Piqué have broken up.
• The couple has been together for almost a decade but never married.
• Shakira says they ask for privacy for the well-being of their children.

Shakira and footballer Gerard Piqué have broken up According to the Colombian singer. “We regret to confirm that we are separating. “For the well-being of our children, who are our highest priority, we ask that you respect our privacy. Thank you for your understanding.” the two said in a statement released by Shakira’s public relations firm.

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For the uninitiated, On the shoot of her music video for Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), which was the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the 45-year-old Hips Don’t Lie singer met the 35-year-old footballer. The couple’s two children are Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7. Despite being together for almost a decade, the couple never married. The confirmation comes after the Spanish newspaper El Periodico reported that Piqué had left his family’s house.

However, things appeared to be going well for the couple as recently as Valentine’s Day, when Shakira commemorated the occasion with a photo on social media. “Let’s whistle our way to 2022!… Y los ultimos besitos del 2021!” she captioned a shot of them kissing as they greeted 2022 together. Shakira explained earlier this year how the two handled with disagreements arising from their different upbringings.

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“My poor husband, slash boyfriend, slash baby daddy, whatever you want to call him, he has to wait up for me so long. He’s tired of waiting up,” the Colombia native jokingly said during a February appearance on the Planet Weirdo with Holly H podcast. “[Because] Colombian time is not the same as Catalonian time, Spanish time. His mind is structured like that and mine. … I’ve become a lot more punctual since I met him. [But] the times that we actually fight is because I’m late and he’s waiting up.”