Shakira addresses rumor she discovered ex Gerard Piqué’s alleged cheating via a jam jar

“It helped me exorcise a lot of the demons that were tormenting me,” she explained to the British newspaper, adding that she had “put [her] career on hold” during her relationship with Piqué.

Shakira started dating the professional soccer player in 2010, and the pair welcomed sons Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9, in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

The former couple’s eldest son also has written cathartic music since his parents’ 2022 separation, which Shakira believes would bring fans “to tears.”

As for Milan and Sasha’s reaction to her own songs about Piqué, Shakira said, “They know that there’s only one way to live life and it’s accepting the pain. And each one of us has different ways of doing that.

“I felt that there was still something there, stuck in my throat,” she continued elsewhere in the interview. “I needed to get it out.”

The songwriter, who has been linked to F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and actor Tom Cruise since her breakup, also hinted at her dating future.

“It’s probably a really bad idea for an artist to hook up with an athlete,” she said, explaining that “empathy is key in an artist’s work” while an athlete “is in a constant state of war and has to avoid empathy at all costs.”

When asked whether she will avoid dating athletes down the line, Shakira replied, “I don’t know what I need.”

Piqué, for his part, appears to still be going strong with his 25-year-old girlfriend, insisting in April 2023 that he does not “care about people’s opinions.”