Singer Shakira takes a jab at Gerard Pique, says having a husband was ‘dragging her down’
- The pop star said she feels her music career has thrived now that she is separated from her ex-husband Pique, with whom she shares two children
- ‘Now I feel like working. I feel like writing songs. I feel like making music. It’s a compulsive need of mine that I didn’t feel before,’ Shakira said
Even though being a single mum can be challenging, Shakira is embracing her independence.
The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer opened up about balancing single motherhood with her career in an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe.
In particular, she feels her music career has thrived now that she’s separated from her ex-husband Gerard Pique, with whom she shares two children.
“In a way, it’s kind of good not to have a husband. I don’t know why, it was dragging me down,” Shakira told Lowe.
When she was still living a married life in Barcelona, it was hard for her to work on new music, Shakira said.
“It was kind of, like, a sometimes love-hate relationship because every time I had to be pulled into the studio to do my work, I failed,” she said. “I felt that I was leaving my family unattended. There were times when I really didn’t enjoy it. You know, I felt guilt. I felt torn.”
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But ever since she moved to Miami with her sons after her split from Pique, things feel “totally different,” she added.
“Now I feel like working. I feel like writing songs. I feel like making music. It’s a compulsive need of mine that I didn’t feel before,” Shakira said.
But having the space to focus on her craft has also been therapeutic, even though she has to manage her sons independently, she added.
“I had to pick up the pieces of myself and then put them all back together and music was the glue to do it,” she said. “Even though, it’s more challenging because now I’m in charge of these two kids, these two babies that depend on me so much. And I’m a single mother; I don’t have a husband at home to help out with anything.”
Shakira isn’t the only celebrity who has spoken out about being a single mum.
In 2016, Sofia Vergara told People magazine about the pride she feels when people compliment her son.
“I was really young when I divorced his father, so I raised him trying to set the best example and give him the best that I could,” Vergara said. “When people compliment me on him, on how well mannered, how charming, funny and well-behaved he is, it makes all the sacrifices worthwhile.”
Vergara has one son, Manolo, with her ex-husband Joe Gonzalez. Vergara and Gonzalez split in 1993, two years after their son was born.
In 2022, Halle Berry told People that enjoying what she does helps her deal with “mum guilt.”
“I’m a single mum and I’m a working mother – the breadwinner in my family – and so working is very much what I have to do, but it’s also what I love to do,” Berry said. “So when I have to go away to work, I make a point of letting my children know, ‘Yes, I’m going because I have to afford our life, but I also love what I’m doing.’”
Berry has two children. She welcomed her first child, daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry, with her ex Gabriel Aubry in 2008. She also has a son, Maceo-Robert Martinez, whom she shares with ex-husband Olivier Martinez.
