Shakira Says Her Breakup Felt Like a ‘Hole in My Chest’ (2024)

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

As the tabloids unpacked Shakira’s split from Gerard Piqué in 2022, the public saw just a sliver of the toll the breakup had taken on the singer. There was the fabled jam jar, the diss track titled “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” the blasé statement from her soccer-player ex claiming he was “faithful” only to himself. With each incremental dispatch, it became increasingly clear that the life of the Grammy winner and mother of two was unraveling in real time as she trudged forward with her music career. But in Thursday’s Rolling Stone profile, the 47-year-old detailed the wreckage of her 11-year relationship with new, graphic clarity. “The suffering I felt was probably the greatest I had ever experienced in my entire life, and it kept me from functioning at times,” she told the outlet, reflecting on the past two years of healing.

“It felt like someone had stabbed a hole in my chest,” Shakira said, an image she later evoked in the 2022 music video for her ballad “Monotonía.” “And the sensation was so real, almost physical. I physically felt like I had a hole in my chest and that people could see through me.”

While stomaching a since-settled tax-evasion case, the emotional turmoil from the breakup, and its accompanying cheating rumors — the soccer player had allegedly cheated on Shakira with his current girlfriend, Clara Chia Marti — the singer found herself leaning on a few famous friends, including Will.i.am, Adele, and John Mayer. Will.i.am, in particular, described this period in Shakira’s life to Rolling Stone as “one [crisis] after another … Boom, boom, boom.” I believe he meant to say “boom boom pow”? Chris Martin of Coldplay also lent a helping hand, sending his longtime friend a photo of a shattered vase glued together. “That’s the metaphor. That you break and then you get fixed with gold, and you’re more beautiful than you were before,” Martin explained. That’s deep, man.

Not to worry, though. Shakira seems to be doing just fine. The first third of the interview takes place in a Dunkin’, which the singer drove to in her purple Lamborghini with “tricked out … Hulk-bright neon-green” interiors, per the outlet. Wearing a pair of “oversize Versace glasses,” the singer gets hit on by a bodybuilder while placing her order. Sounds like a delightful day to me.

Tags:

• celebrity
• shakira
• gerard piqué
• celebrity breakups
• celebrity divorce
• divorce
• music
• culture
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