In a new cover story interview with People en Español, Shakira reflected on finding out she was “betrayed” by Piqué shortly after her father William Mebarak Chadid ended up in the hospital due to a bad fall.
The “Hips Don’t Lie” performer, 46, was speaking to the outlet about how her mother Nidia Ripoll Torrado is her “partner in crime,” and Chadid, 91, is her “best friend” when she recalled the incident.
“He went to Barcelona to console me after I was consumed with sadness because of my separation,” said Shakira, who shares two sons — Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7, with Piqué, 36. “While he was at Milan’s first communion, he was gravely injured in an accident. Everything happened at once. My home was falling apart. I was finding out through the press that I had been betrayed while my dad was in the ICU.”
She recalled thinking she “wasn’t going to survive” the hardships: “The man I have loved the most in my life, my father, was leaving me when I needed him the most. I couldn’t talk to him, or go to my best friend for the advice I needed so much.”
Detailing Chadid’s recovery process, Shakira said it’s “been very hard and slow” but praised him as a “wonderful man and an endearing character who surprises us all with his strength.”
“He has overcome COVID once, two accidents, one pneumonia and five surgeries— all of this at 91 years of age, in less than six months. My dad is the biggest example of resilience, and my mother has been by his side day and night,” she continued. “They have both been a reflection of that dream that didn’t come true for me. But I hope they are role models for my kids of love, of patience in relationships, of absolute devotion and zest for life.”