Gerard Piqué Breaks Silence on Shakira Split and How It Affects Their Kids

The soccer star and the musician ended their 11-year relationship in 2022.

Gerard Piqué is finally talking about the end of his 11-year relationship with Shakira. In a new interview with the Spanish publication El Pais, the 36-year-old former soccer star gives insight on his life since he and the pop star split.

When asked by the journalist how he's been affected by the breakup, Piqué shifted the focus to their children, Milan, 10, and Sasha, 8.

"I won’t say, I don’t want to," Piqué tells the reporter via translation from Spanish to English. "Everyone has their responsibility to do what’s best for their kids."

"It’s about protecting them," Piqué adds. "That’s the job of all parents with their kids. That’s what I’m focused on and that’s my role as a father."

Piqué -- who went Instagram official with this girlfriend, Clara Chia Martí, in January -- also spoke about the media's attention and the backlash he has received since the highly publicized breakup. 

"The problem is how people perceive things or how the press packages it. I’m still doing what I want," he tells the publication. "I want to be faithful to myself. I’m not gonna waste money on cleaning up my image."

He continues, "The people that I love and worry about are the people that know me. The rest, I don’t care. I’m putting my energy on the people that are closest to me, and giving them what I have. I’m very happy. There’s been changes in my life and I’ve known how to preserve that happiness."

Shakira and Piqué announced the end of their long-term partnership last year. In the months that followed, the chart-topping songstress released her single, "BZRP Music Sessions, Vo. 53," a collaboration with Argentine DJ Bizarrap that was a call-out to the end of their relationship.

Earlier this month, Shakira spoke about writing the song and how it helped her work through her emotions following the breakup.

"I've had a very rough year after my separation, and writing this song has been so important to me," she said during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "It’s been a healthy way to channel my emotions. And I feel that after we put out this song, I really felt that I don’t even have fans out there. I have a sisterhood of women who have been through the same things that I have been through, who think the way I think, who feel the way I feel, who had to put up with so much crap the way I had to. And I did write the song for me but also I feel that it was meant for so many women out there that needed a forum and a voice to represent them in so many ways."

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