Shakira is sharing a look into her life after her separation from soccer star Gerard Piqué, shedding light on love, sacrifice, and the enduring power of friendship.

Reflecting on her journey after the breakup, Shakira opened up about the evolution of her priorities and beliefs regarding love. “Deep down, I always thought having a husband was the most important thing in my life,” she tells Marie Claire UK. “I was in search for that man like my dad, who I’d have kids with and then make plans to be with forever – like my parents, who are still so in love.”

Despite the heartache of the separation and the adjustments that followed, Shakira hasn’t lost faith in love, drawing inspiration from her parents’ enduring relationship. “I cannot say that I don’t believe in love because I see the example of my parents after 50 years together,” she shares. “I’ve witnessed love, I just haven’t been that lucky myself.”

The 47-year-old artist, who parted ways with Piqué in 2022 after over a decade together, has since relocated to Florida, where she is focused on raising her two sons, Milan and Sasha.

While romantic love may have eluded her thus far, Shakira finds solace and longevity in the bonds of friendship. “Oscar Wilde said that friendship is the purest form of love and I think that’s true,” she remarks. “My relationship [lasted] 12 years but my friends will be there a lifetime.”

Navigating life as a single mother, Shakira admitted to facing challenges but expressed gratitude for the solid bond she shares with her sons. “I wondered how we were going to survive, how we were going to do it,” she confesses, highlighting the resilience and adaptability she and her children have developed.

Last month, the 47-year-old Colombian superstar released her album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which translates to “women no longer cry” and at the time became the highest streamed album of the year.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Shakira explained the meaning behind the album’s title.

“For too long we’ve been sent to cry with script in our hands and without an end just because we’re women,” she said. “We have to conceal our pain in front of our kids, in front of society. We have to heal in a certain way. And I don’t think anyone is supposed to tell us how to heal. No one is supposed to tell a she wolf how to lick her wounds, you know? I think that now women decide when to cry, how to cry, and until when. Nobody’s supposed to tell us how to cope with the hardship of life.”

Shakira also poked fun at the painful breakup with Piqué, saying it gave her time to focus on her craft.

“I didn’t have time because of the husband factor. Now I’m husband-less,” she teased. “Yeah, the husband was dragging me down. Now I’m free. Now I can actually work.”

She noted that while she was grieving the end of the relationship, she turned to her music, calling it “the glue.”

“Each one of these songs really was like catharsis to me, and I felt better and better each time I wrote something,” she shared.

She also features her sons on the album, joking that they’re “asking for royalties,” in order to save up for a car one day.

Shakira further explained her new outlook on making music during a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, saying, “Now it feels totally different. Even though, it’s more challenging because now I’m in charge of these two kids, these two babies that depend on me so much. And I’m a single mother, I don’t have a husband at home to help out with anything. In a way, it’s kind of good not to have a husband because that…I don’t know why it was dragging me down, man. Now I feel like working. I feel like writing songs. I feel like making music. It’s a compulsive need of mine that I didn’t feel before.”

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