Gerard Piqué, as far as world football fans are concerned, is the stalwart center-back holding down the defense for Spanish powerhouse Barcelona FC, as well as for the Spanish national team. But to singer Shakira, Gerard Piqué is the love of her life and a fairy tale prince. The singer explained why she dedicated the song “23” on her new self-titled album to the Barcelona star who has been the man in her life since 2010.
“The song was more about the miracle that it was to meet him and how he changed my life,” said the Colombian pop star whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll. “Sometimes I feel that at that time when we had met, I often felt like a princess trapped in a castle with a dragon inside and he was that prince that rescued me from the dragon.”
Shakira made the romantic remarks on the British network ITV’s program Lorraine Monday morning. And the onetime Voice judge is not self-conscious about gushing over Piqué.
“I know that sounds super corny but that’s how I feel,” she said. “I was searching for happiness for so long and I finally found it with him.”
Gerard Piqué is 10 years Shakira’s junior. She is 37 years old, Piqué 27.
The pair met when Piqué appeared in the video for Shakira’s 2010 single “Waka, Waka,” which was a theme song for that year’s World Cup in South Africa. In January of last year the Gerard Piqué and Shakira welcomed their first child , a boy named Milan.
In the Lorraine interview, Shakira said that every day is Take Your Child To Work Day with the baby she shares with Gerard Piqué.
“I try to take him everywhere I go, just to be with him and nurture him as much as I can,” she said.
But while the couple are often apart due to their separate careers, Gerard Piqué is a Barcelona native and grew up in the Barcelona Football Club organization. The couple make their home in Barcelona, which is the capital of Spain’s autonomous Catalonia region, which is struggling to gain its independence.
Shakira generated controversy when her new album came out last week containing a song sung in the native language of Catalonia. She was accused f taking a political stand on Catalonia independence but, while neither she nor Gerard Piqué have commented, the song was likely intended as yet another tribute to her “prince.”
