Gerard Piqué has broken his silence on his split from Shakira in a new interview.
The Colombian singer confirmed her split from the former footballer last June, after 11 years together.
The former couple share two children together – 10-year-old Milan and eight-year-old Sasha.
During a chat with El Pais, the sports star revealed why he chose not to comment on their split until now.
According to a translation of his interview, Gerard said “everyone has their responsibility to try to do what is best for their children.”
“It is about protecting them. That is the job of all parents with children. That is what I am focused on and that is my job as a father.”
Just two months after his split from Shakira, the Spanish sports star went public with his new girlfriend – 23-year-old PR student Clara Chia Marti.
Gerard noted that he is “very happy”, and said: “I keep doing what I want. The day I die, I will look back and hope I have always done what I wanted.”
“I want to be faithful to myself. I’m not going to spend money cleaning up my image.”
“The people that I love and care about are the ones who know me. The rest isn’t important to me. I spend my energy on being with my loved ones and giving them what I have,” he continued.
“I’m very happy. There have been changes in my life and I have known how to preserve happiness.”
Shakira started dating Gerard back in 2011, after they met while filming the music video for her World Cup song Waka Waka in 2010.
At the end of November, Shakira and Gerard signed a custody agreement ahead of the singer moving to Miami with their two sons.
Since their split, the Columbian singer has raised eyebrows by shading her ex through her music and on social media.
During an interview with Elle last year, Shakira cited how tough their break up was.
At the time, the 46-year-old said: “I’ve remained quiet and just tried to process it all. Um, and yeah, it’s hard to talk about it, especially because I’m still going through it, and because I’m in the public eye and because our separation is not like a regular separation.”
“And so it’s been tough not only for me, but also for my kids. Incredibly difficult.”
“I have paparazzi camping outside, in front of my house, 24/7,” the Hips Don’t Lie singer continued. “And there’s not a place where I can hide from them with my kids, except for my own house.”
“You know, we can’t take a walk in the park like a regular family or go have an ice cream or do any activity without paparazzi following us. So it’s hard.”
Speaking about her and Gerard’s young children, Shakira said: “I try to do it and to protect them, because that’s my number one mission in life. But then they hear things in school from their friends or they come across some disagreeable, unpleasant news online, and it just affects them, you know?”
“Sometimes I just feel like this is all a bad dream and that I’m going to wake up at some point,” she added.
“It’s real,” Shakira said of the breakup. “And what’s also real is the disappointment to see something as sacred and as special as I thought was the relationship I had with my kids’ father and see that turned into something vulgarized and cheapened by the media.”
“And all of this while my dad has been in the ICU and I’ve been fighting on different fronts. Like I said, this is probably the darkest hour of my life,” the singer said.
