Shakira breaks her silence over Piqué split: “Making music is my psychiatrist”

COLOMBIAN rock legend Shakira has been interviewed for the first time since her rumoured split from long-term partner, FC Barcelona's Gerard Piqué, giving a frank and emotionally-open account of her life since Spain's first-ever FIFA World Cup win in 2010.

Having Spanish roots herself – her mother Nidia Ripoll's grandparents are from Catalunya – it seemed as though making the move to Barcelona to be with the love of her life and future father of her children would be almost a homegoing, and the brand-new young family was happy there for many years.

But it involved Shakira, now 45, having to let her career take a back seat even before motherhood came along.

World Cup 2010: Where it all changed

Rewinding back to to South Africa 12 years ago, when the Barranquilla-born artist – a household name in Latin America and the USA since she was 17 – composed and performed the World Cup theme track, Waka Waka, rumours had been rife about an estrangement between Shakira and her boyfriend of over 11 years, Antonio, son of former Argentine president Fernando de la Rúa.

This alone came as a shock to fans, since the couple had been inseparable – to the point where Shakira refused to perform with anyone other than Antonio on the video for Underneath Your Clothes in 2002, saying it had been written for him and was 'too intimate' to act out with another man.

Soon after, speculation was rife that Shakira and Barça midfielder Piqué, now 35, were together, but this was not confirmed for several months when they were finally seen in an emotional embrace at a Barça-Osasuna match.

They have never married, and Shakira revealed a few years back that this was a way of keeping the spontaneity and romance alive – that they had to 'work' to keep each other as complacency was not an option.

By then, though, they had two sons, Milan, now nine and Sasha, now seven.

Shakira put her career on hold when the boys came along with almost exactly two years difference at the beginning of 2013 and 2015, embracing her new life as mum with pride, excitement and an outpouring of love – Gerard, too, has always been besotted with his kids, and both of them became FC Barcelona fan club members almost as soon as they were born.

But according to a recent interview in Elle Spain, Shakira had slowed her career right down long before the children were born.

“One of us would have to sacrifice our careers and move abroad”

At the time, she was still living in Miami, where she had been based for years with Antonio de la Rúa.

“Gerard wanted to play football and win titles,” Shakira admits.

“Either he would have to break off his contract with FC Barcelona and move to the USA with me, where my career was, or I would have to do all that instead [give up her career and move to Barcelona]. Like this, one of us had to make the effort and make the sacrifice.”

At the time, among other major projects, Shakira had been a judge on The Voice and had been producing up to an album a year at her busiest.

“So it was me who did it. I put my career on the back burner and came to Spain to support him so he could play football and win titles,” the singer explains.

She makes it clear she did not feel pushed or pressured into it, and that the couple had discussed it thoroughly.

“It was an act of love,” Shakira confesses.

Now that their split has been confirmed by both parties, and Piqué has been seen with a woman the media claims is his new partner, Clara Chía, it is proving to be an incredibly difficult time for the former couple who, it seems, are still close and would like to remain friends if they can.

“This is one of the hardest and darkest times of my life,” says Shakira, who shares a birthday with her ex – February 2, although 10 years apart – but along with the children, her career as singer, composer and musician is her therapy and escapism.

“Writing music is like going to a psychiatrist – except cheaper,” she says.

“Sometimes all this feels like a bad dream and that I'm going to wake up at any moment.”

Is Shakira leaving Spain?

“Independently of how things ended or how Gerard and I feel as a former couple, he's the father of my children – we have a job to do for these two amazing little boys, and I have faith that we'll discover what's best for their future and the fairest solution for everyone,” Shakira told reporters.

But it does look as though Spain is going to lose one of its favourite and best-known international residents: If joint childcare arrangements allow it, her intention is to return to live in the USA.

Her father William grew up there – in New York – although his parents were Lebanese, and his daughter's music has often been inspired by her Middle Eastern roots: Arabic verses in Ojos Así/Eyes Like Yours, and her belly-dancing prowess which she first showed off in public to great acclaim aged three, are good examples.

In reality, she is only a quarter Colombian, half-Lebanese and a quarter Spanish, hence her surname of Mebarak Ripoll, but she was born and lived in Barranquilla until she was 23 and runs the Bare Feet Foundation (Fundación Pies Descalzos), named after her 1996 album, which works to get Colombian children in particular who are from deprived backgrounds into education.

This is just one of her many actions in charity, and which include donating €13.5m to Haïti's Hurricane Matthew victims in October 2016.

Paparazzi and tax dispute

Shakira says she is having real trouble at present keeping her children out of the spotlight, admitting that there is 'nowhere except her own house' where she can hid from the paparazzi.

“We can't go for a walk in the park like a normal family, or go out for an ice-cream or any other family activity without the paparazzi following us,” says the artist, who has appealed to the media to 'respect their privacy' and 'give them some space'.

She says she is also being followed because of a high-profile dispute with the Spanish tax authorities, all of which is making her feel resentful at a painful time in her personal life.

Shakira has rejected an 'offer' by the treasury to pay €14.5 million in income tax plus interest in order to avoid a suspended prison sentence, after a court decided she had been tax resident in Spain between 2011 and 2014 and demanded she pay her dues for the 'missing' years.

She has refused to pay 'on principle', since she insists she is innocent, and maintains that she was still legally resident and tax resident in Miami at the time due to winding up her work across the pond, and being on world tours.

Spanish law dictates that if tax evasion – deliberate or otherwise – exceeds €120,000, it is automatically a criminal, rather than a civil, offence, although a custodial term of under two years does not have to be served by a person with no criminal record and it is rare that a longer one would be awarded.

Shakira is one of a handful of celebrities whose work takes them all over the world and who have lived in Spain for specific periods leading to disputes over where, and when, they were tax residents, and problems when their tax-paying structure from a previous country clashed with laws in Spain.

She cites Portuguese football team captain and ex-Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo, who maintained his structure set up whilst in Manchester, UK was legal there but found not to be in Spain; Xabi Alonso, and Neymar.

“But it's also happened with other, anonymous taxpayers,” Shakira says.

The general norm is that a person is considered tax resident in Spain if they spend 183 days of a calendar year in the country.

Anyone whose income is from more than one source and below a specified amount is required to make an annual declaration, normally through a gestor or financial advisor, who handles the entire file and simply requests the customer send in certain documents; the minimum threshold of €12,000 means most State pensioners and workers on an average salary are more likely to get a refund or break even, but low-income residents with a sole earnings source are often inclined to make a declaration despite not being obliged to, on the basis they may well get money returned to them.

Spain's government is currently considering increasing the minimum threshold.

In Shakira's case, her appeal and refusal to accept the €14.5m offer is about 'principle' and 'justice' rather than ability to pay – other celebrities in a similar situation have agreed to settle the demand in order to close the issue and get on with their lives.

Foreign accountants specialising in international tax law, or accountants based in Spain, are always the best option for ensuring personal and corporate tax is paid at the correct amount, neither more nor less than is due.

Unpaid taxes and other dues have a four-year limit, meaning any discrepancies found will automatically be filed and no action taken if they have not been notified in the previous four years.