“This has been a journey back to myself, and the way there was through my music,” she explained. “I’m in a moment where the worst has happened, and this process woke up a new sense of autonomy and independence in me.”
Shakira’s new focus on her music coincides with her previously discussing how she put her career on hold for her partner’s own profession.
“There was a lot of sacrifice for love,” she admitted to Times of London in March. “I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football.”
Ultimately, the Grammy winner had planned to get back into the driver’s seat when Gerard retired from professional soccer, but dived back in a little earlier than expected due to the former couple’s breakup.
“In the end, the plans all come true,” she acknowledged to Rolling Stone. “Just in a different way.”
And while Shakira and Gerard’s relationship is firmly in the singer’s rearview, keep reading for all of their best family moments.
