Shakira has opened up about her split from soccer star Gerard Piqué after 11 years together.
According to Spanish media reports last year, Shakira ended her relationship when she learned Piqué was cheating. In January, he went Instagram official with 23-year-old Clara Chia Martí.
Shakira, who has sons Sasha, 8, and Milan, 10, with Piqué, told journalist Enrique Acevedo she is focused on being the best version of herself.
“I've always been very emotionally dependent [on men],” the 46-year-old pop star said in a Spanish-language interview that aired Monday on Mexico’s N+. “I was in love with love.
“I too believed that story, that a women needed a man to complete herself. I also had that dream to have a family where the kids had their mom and dad under the same roof.”
Shakira said she now realizes that she is OK on her own. “When a woman has to face [hardships] in life, she comes out stronger,” she said. “When you come out stronger it means you're learning to recognize your weaknesses and accept your vulnerability.”
The Colombian singer said she needs to be “stronger than a lioness” because her children depend on her.
“That force needs to be real, it cannot be a façade,” she explained, “and it's a force that comes out of living in pain, frustration, life not turning out the way you expected, dreams that are ripped apart and having to pick up the pieces from the floor and putting yourself together again.”
Shakira said she has received a lot of support from women following the announcement of her split from Piqué. "I have realized that women are at a key moment for society,” she said. “We are at a point where the support that we can receive from each other is very relevant, it is very important.”
She also paraphrased former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright. “There is this quote… that I love, and it says, ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t support women.’ And yes, I'm in total agreement with that.”
(In a 2006 speech, Albright said: “There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.”)
Shakira said her January collaboration with Argentine producer Bizarrap, “Pa' Tipos Como Tú” (“Out of Your League”) – also known as "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53" – helped her feel empowered. In it, she sings: "You thought you'd hurt me, but you made me stronger / Women no longer cry, women get paid."
“I would be in a very different place if I had not made that song, [to have] the chance to express myself, to think about pain,” she explained, crediting Bizarrap for “giving me that space, that opportunity to vent."
Shakira added: "It was a great relief, also necessary for my own healing, for my own recovery process.”