Halloween costumes are usually the least serious thing a pop star posts all year. In late October 2022, four months after splitting from Gerard Piqué, Shakira swapped a cheerleader outfit for Wonder Woman, in a dark wig, and called the holiday the perfect excuse to indulge childhood wishes. When this site first wrote about it, the costume looked like a brave face. Four years later, my read is that it was a fairly accurate forecast.
How it started: a World Cup song
Shakira met Piqué in 2010, when the Barcelona and Spain defender appeared in the video for “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” the official song of that year’s World Cup. She was 33, he was 23, and for once a football anthem produced something more lasting than a chant.
They had two sons in Barcelona: Milan, born in 2013, and Sasha, born in 2015. They never married. Shakira built her life around his city for more than a decade, which is the detail I keep coming back to, because it explains almost everything that came after.
The split, in their own words
In June 2022 the couple put out a joint statement: “We regret to confirm that we are separating.” They asked for privacy for the children, “who are our highest priority.” Tabloids filled the silence with cheating stories, and soon Piqué was photographed with Clara Chía Martí, who worked at his company.
Shakira spoke about it once, to Elle in its October 2022 issue, calling the separation “incredibly difficult” and the period the “darkest hour” of her life. The tax case in Spain was hanging over her at the same time. My opinion: that interview is still the only first-hand account of the breakup worth reading, and everything else from that summer was paparazzi weather.
Custody, Miami, and a song that broke records
In November 2022 the pair announced a signed custody agreement, and the boys moved with their mother to Miami, where her family lives; they left Barcelona in spring 2023. Piqué, meanwhile, retired from football in November 2022 and went into business. He and Clara Chía are still together as of 2026; wedding talk in the Spanish press comes from commentators, not from them.
Then, in January 2023, Shakira did what songwriters do. “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” made with Argentine producer Bizarrap, named no names and still left no doubt, complete with the line about trading a Ferrari for a Twingo and a Rolex for a Casio. Guinness World Records counted 63 million YouTube views in 24 hours, the most for a Latin track. I don’t love breakups set to a beat, but I admire the bookkeeping: she turned the worst year of her life into the biggest Latin debut on the platform.
The tax case, settled and then reversed
The old version of this post said she faced prison for tax evasion. That chapter closed in November 2023: on the first day of her Barcelona trial over the 2012-2014 tax years, Shakira accepted a deal, admitted six counts of tax fraud and paid the tax owed plus a €7.3 million fine instead of a prison term.
The earlier fight went her way. On May 18, 2026, Spain’s National High Court published a ruling annulling the 2011 assessment and penalties, finding she had spent 163 days in Spain that year, short of the 183 needed to be a tax resident, and ordering the tax agency to repay more than €55 million. She called it a “decisive and historic ruling” and said “Every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified.” The agency can still appeal, and Spanish media report it intends to. Here is my view: a court record is the only kind of receipt that matters in this story, and for once it is on her side.
October 2026: back in court, and back in Madrid
The two are not finished with judges. On October 6, 2026, Shakira and Piqué both appeared at Barcelona’s City of Justice. She is asking to change the 2022 custody agreement so that Piqué flies to Miami during the boys’ short school breaks instead of Milan, now 13, and Sasha, 11, crossing the Atlantic. Her side says the goal is “that the effort of traveling between Miami and Barcelona does not fall solely on them,” not less time with their father. Piqué has not commented publicly, and no ruling has been reported.
Six days later she finished a 13-show residency at Macondo Park in Madrid, the last stop of the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. Her team puts attendance above 700,000. On the final night, October 12, Bizarrap joined her for “Vol. 53,” and she told the crowd she had been through “difficult moments this month because of my dad’s health.” Her summary of the run: “It’s all been a dream.” The Spanish gossip press is now pairing her with former NBA player Serge Ibaka, based on a TV reporter’s claims; neither has said a word, so neither will I, beyond noting it.
So, was it Wonder Woman?
Shakira, 49, has spent four years doing the unglamorous parts of a breakup in public: the custody paperwork, the move, the court dates, the school-holiday flight logistics. The superhero part was the music, and the 700,000 people in Madrid. The costume in 2022 was a wig and a wish. In 2026 it fits.
Sources
- Shakira on Instagram: the end of the Madrid residency, October 2026
- Shakira on Instagram: Halloween 2022 post
- Bizarrap (YouTube): Shakira, BZRP Music Sessions #53
- shakiraVEVO (YouTube): Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
- CNN via KEYT: Spanish court orders tax authority to repay Shakira (May 2026)
- Complex: Shakira and Gerard Piqué appear in court over their sons’ flight schedules
- Consequence: Shakira’s final show of the 13-date Madrid residency
- Rolling Stone: Shakira on the separation in Elle (2022)
- Fox News: Shakira reaches custody agreement, moving to Miami (2022)
- Guinness World Records: BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 53 records
- Primera Hora: Shakira as Wonder Woman (2022)
- Noticias RCN: Shakira and Serge Ibaka rumors (unconfirmed)
