Getty Shakira and Gerard Pique are pictured at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, May 18, 2014 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gerard Pique is a famous Spanish professional soccer who plays as a center-back for the Catalonia national team and Barcelona. He is married to Shakira, who is performing during halftime at the 2020 Super Bowl.
They have been together since 2011 and share two children together—sons Milan and Sasha—but they are not legally married. In fact, the idea of walking down the aisle scares Shakira.
“I don’t want him to see me as the wife. I’d rather him see me as his girlfriend. His lover, his girlfriend. It’s like a little forbidden fruit, you know? I wanna keep him on his toes. I want him to think that anything’s possible depending on the behavior,” she told 60 Minutes in January. “To tell you the truth, marriage scares the shit out of me.”
Meeting Pique, who is 10 years younger than Shakira, helped restore her faith in God. “I was not feeling the love like it was supposed to be, I started to think that there was no God. And suddenly I meet Gerard and the sun comes out,” she told Elle in 2013. “I think if you can prove the existence of God, it can only be proven through love. I even had lost my faith for a while. I was becoming as agnostic.”
To find out more about Pique and his relationship with Shakira, continue reading below for five fast facts:
Their First Conversation Was About The Weather
Most people make small talk about the weather when they have nothing else to say. This was also the case for Shakira and Pique. After they were briefly introduced, Pique wrote to her and asked her what the weather was like when they were both in South Africa for the World Cup.
“She was already there because she sang in the opening ceremony and I asked her what the weather was like,” Pique told Spain’s TV3 in 2016. “It’s the typical stupid question, and the normal answer is to tell me to bring a jacket [June and July are winter in South Africa].”
The soccer player added: “But she started telling me what the weather was, like, every minute and it got to the point where I told her we [Spain] would have to get to the World Cup final to see her again—she was singing at the final.”
Despite Being a Professional Athlete, Shakira Didn’t Know Who He Was At First
While Pique is a famous soccer player in Europe, the Colombian singer wasn’t familiar with him at first. He is a decade younger than him, and she knew he looked like her junior, but she found him attractive.
“I wasn’t a soccer fan, so I didn’t know who he was,” Shakira said on 60 Minutes. “When I saw the video, I was like, ‘Hmm, that one’s kind of cute.'” She added: “And then someone decided to introduce us.”
Shakira Broke Up with Her Longtime Boyfriend After Meeting Pique
In the time they were together, Shakira’s ex-boyfriend, Antonio de la Rua, had also become her manager. Not long after meeting Pique, however, they announced their split publicly in January 2011.
“During our almost 11 years together we have loved each other deeply, taken care of each other and stood by one another,” they said in a joint message. “They have been the most wonderful years of our lives, and thanks to that love and the respect that we share for one another we have been an exceptional couple and partners. However, since August 2010, we made a mutual decision to take time apart from our romantic relationship. Throughout this time we have continued to work together hand in hand, have remained close and have kept the details absolutely private until now.”
Not long after, paparazzi started to follow Shakira and Pique. Rumors soon swirled they were together. In March 2011, they confirmed their relationship. They welcomed their first son, Milan, in 2013 and their second son, Sasha, in 2015.
Shakira Has Been Saying She Didn’t Want To Get Married Since 2014
During her recent 60 Minutes interview Shakira said she didn’t get married because she wanted to keep her boyfriend and father of her two children on his toes and it’s not the first time she’s made this proclamation.
Shakira likes being legally single. “We already have what’s essential, you know? We have a union, a love for each other, and a baby. I think that those aspects of our relationship are already established, and marriage is not going to change them,” she told Glamour in 2014.
That doesn’t mean she’s completely ruled out marriage with Pique because if she were to marry anyone, it would be him. “But if I’m ever going to get married, he’s the one,” she said.
Shakira Wrote “Me Enamoré” About Pique
In 2017, she wrote “Me Enamoré,” which is a love song for Pique. “When I played Me Enamoré” for him he really liked it. I was like, ‘Wow’ this is going to be a monster,” she told ET Candana, remembering Pique’s reaction. “He looks at me with those eyes, like awww…really appreciating the fact that I paid homage to that moment in our lives when we met each other—that turning point in our lives where everything changed.”
In part of the song she sings in the English translation, “Life began to change me/The night I met you/ Had little to lose/ And the thing went on like this”
“I write personal songs but I have no other way to make music,” Shakira said about sharing her personal life with Pique. “It’s the only way I know. It’s guitar strings for me. Otherwise, I have to pay too many shrinks and that’s expensive. For years I spent my life pressing pause on those things that are now my priority.”