Shakira believes “there is a place in hell” for women who don’t support each other.
Those comments may have been aimed at Clara Chia Martí, who recently became Instagram-official with Shakira’s ex-boyfriend Gerard Piqué — the retired soccer player who shares two kids with the superstar singer, and who allegedly cheated on her after 11 years of dating.
“What did Madeline Albright, the U.S. secretary of state, say again, in a phrase I love?” Shakira told Enrique Acevedo of Mexico’s Canal Estrellas outlet, in a Spanish-language interview published Monday. “She said that ‘there is a place in hell reserved for those women who don’t support other women.’ And yeah, I am in complete agreement.” (Albright, who died in 2022, used the expression many times over the years, though she acknowledged there are contexts in which it doesn’t always apply.)
“I’ve always been very dependent, emotionally, on men, I must confess, and have been in love with love,” Shakira told Acevedo, according to a HuffPost translation. “I think I’ve managed to understand that narrative from a different perspective and feel, today, that I myself am enough.”
The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer has certainly had a turbulent few months.
She not only saw tax fraud accusations from 2018 turn into actual charges, but saw her partner leave for another woman. Shakira, who has since released brutal breakup songs about Piqué, said she’s “always felt the duty to use my voice and lend it to those who can’t speak.”
“I, too, bought that story that a woman needs a man to complete her, and a family,” Shakira told Acevedo. “I, too, had that dream of having a family in which the children have a father and a mother under the same roof. Not all the dreams in life come true.”
Joel C. Ryan/Invision/Associated Press
“But life finds another way to compensate you,” she continued. “And I think with me, it has more than made up for it with these two stupendous and marvelous kids who fill me with love every single day.”
Shakira and Piqué, who officially retired from soccer in November, first announced their split in a joint statement in June. The two requested privacy for the sake of their children, 10-year-old Milan and 8-year-old Sasha. Shakira told Acevedo she’s since grown stronger.
When Acevedo suggested Shakira hasn’t felt personally fulfilled despite her success in music and philanthropic endeavors, the singer pushed back.
“Well, look, now — paradoxically — yes, I do feel complete,” she said. “Because I feel like I depend on myself, and furthermore, have two children who depend on me. So I have to be stronger than a lioness. But like I said, that strength, in order for it to be real and not a put-on, has to be a strength that is the result of living through a pain, of accepting it, of understanding ― of tolerating frustration.”
“Because there are things in life that don’t happen how you wanted,” she went on. “Dreams that break. And you have to pick up the little pieces from the floor and build them back together. And I have to be an example for my sons of ‘You can,’ that you can survive those battles in life.”
Shakira allegedly grew suspicious of Piqué after finding her strawberry jam eaten, knowing that neither Piqué nor her children enjoyed it. The singer seemed to reference that discovery in the video for her 2022 song “Te Felicito” (“I Congratulate You”).
“When a woman has to face life’s battles, she comes out stronger,” Shakira told Acevedo. “And when you come out stronger, you’ve learned to understand your own weaknesses, to accept your vulnerabilities, to express what one feels and the pain of that — because, as they say, the opposite of depression is expression.”
“I think I’ve succeeded in feeling like I’m enough,” she added, “which is something I never felt could happen.”