BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP via Getty Images

Shakira in 2024: “It’s Kind Of Good Not To Have A Husband Because I Don’t Know Why It Was Dragging Me Down. I Might Not Grow Old with a Partner, but I Will Grow Old Surrounded by Good Friends.”

Updated 4 days ago, August 14, 2026

Shakira split from Gerard Piqué in 2022 after 11 years and two kids together. Two years later she said the freedom felt better than the marriage ever did.

Shakira was with Piqué for more than a decade and shares two sons with the former Spanish defender, who played in three World Cups for Spain during their years together.

The full-circle part is that the World Cup is why they met at all. Piqué turned up on the 2010 “Waka Waka” video shoot in South Africa and texted her about the weather. By the time Spain lifted the trophy that summer, they were together.

She’s spent the years since building a life that doesn’t hinge on a partner. She has said she put her own career on hold to be present while he played — the same split that later produced the jam-jar lore and the biggest Latin diss tracks of the decade.

This month the reversal was complete. She recorded the official 2026 anthem and headlined the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show in New Jersey, co-billed with Madonna, BTS and Bieber. She performed “Dai Dai” with Burna Boy in a crystal-covered Roberto Cavalli bodysuit reportedly worth six figures.

Woman with long wavy hair blowing behind her, smiling broadly, wearing a pink and yellow rhinestone costume while performing on stage. — Hair flying mid-spin, Shakira lights up the field during the Topps Final Halftime Show at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19, 2026. Photo by Lars Baron / Getty Images.

Woman in a bedazzled pink and yellow feathered costume holding a pink microphone, laughing mid-performance with hair streaming behind her. — At New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026, Shakira holds a pink microphone and faces the crowd during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Topps Final Halftime Show. Photo by Kevin Kane / Getty Images.

Piqué watched the final from the stands with their sons, Milan and Sasha. Clips that circulated afterward caught the boys singing along and cheering through her set while their father sat comparatively still — the ex in the stands with the cheering kids.

A smiling young woman with long wavy hair sits in the passenger seat of a truck beside a man at the steering wheel, green fields visible through the windows. — A young Shakira rides in a truck alongside her then-boyfriend Antonio De La Rúa near Punta del Este, Uruguay, in September 2000, during a stay she’d arranged to record new music. Photo by Oscar Bernasconi / AFP via Getty Images.

Spain won 1-0 in extra time, Ferran Torres scoring the winner, and Shakira joined the on-pitch celebrations.

Shakira wearing sunglasses and all-black outfit carries a Burberry jacket while leaving a courthouse in Barcelona, escorted by two men. — Shakira departs a Barcelona courthouse on December 1, 2022, flanked by security after attending proceedings to ratify her separation from Gerard Piqué and finalize a custody arrangement for their two children. Photo by Pau Barrena / AFP via Getty Images.

Her 2024 comments read differently now. “Now I’m husbandless,” she said on “The Tonight Show.” “Yeah, the husband was dragging me down. Now I’m free. Now I can actually work.” She told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that losing the marriage lifted something that had been holding her creativity back, and that she suddenly felt compulsive about writing again.

Fans keep their own scoreboard: four World Cup performances for her, three appearances for him — she’s the one closing tournaments on the world’s biggest stage while insisting the good friends matter more than the partner.

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