Last Updated on 06/22/2023 by てんしょく飯
Shakira, who is being prosecuted by Spanish prosecutors for tax evasion, has spoken candidly in court about her relationship with her former lover, Spanish national soccer player Gerard Pique.
Shakira opens up about her relationship with Pique in court.
Singer Shakira, who is being prosecuted by Spanish prosecutors for tax evasion, has spoken out in court about her relationship with Gerard Pique, the Spanish soccer player who had a “messy breakup” with Shakira last June.
The alleged tax evasion took place between 2012 and 2014. Shakira claims that she lived in the Bahamas (her legal address was also in the Bahamas) and did not intend to hide her income, but prosecutors say that she spent more than half the year in Barcelona, where her boyfriend (at the time) Pique lived, and that she was liable to pay income tax.
Therefore, another point of contention is whether Shakira was in such a close relationship with Pique that she was based in Spain at the time. This time, EL PAÍS obtained the testimony she gave in court when Shakira appeared before a Barcelona court in June 2019. In it, Shakira recalls the early days of her relationship with Pique.
I was crazy about him. I remember the flight from Marrakech to Croatia. We were flying over Barcelona and I asked the pilot if we could land for a moment so I could kiss Gerard. It was the most romantic action of my life. I don’t know if the tax office would have considered that a day in Spain.”
When he and I started dating in 2011, we hardly ever saw each other. He was 23 years old, 10 years younger than me. He was a soccer player, handsome, and had a reputation as a playboy. At the time he was a naughty kid. Now he is a wonderful person, but back then he was crazy and there was no guarantee that things would work out or that we would start a family. I never thought that the boy with the beard would turn out to be great and end up living in this country (Spain). Well, we don’t live there anymore.”
Shakira also considers it “absurd” that the Spanish authorities considered her “resident in Spain” for tax purposes at the time, “I didn’t make any sacrifices for him at the time, and I didn’t know what he wanted from me. I didn’t know what he wanted from me. He probably just wanted to have a good time and wasn’t thinking long term,” and “How could I sacrifice everything for a man I just met, a man much younger than myself?
As reported in Front Row, the reason for the breakup of Shakira and Pique, who had been together for about 11 years, was Pique’s infidelity, and after the breakup there was some controversy as Shakira released a diss song directed at Pique and his affair partner. In Shakira’s testimony above, she says, “Now he is a wonderful person,” but this was said before Piqué’s affair was discovered, so it might have been different now.
In addition, in order to support Piqué’s soccer life, Shakira put her own career second and moved to Barcelona, where his club was located at the time, and continued to live in the house where she and Piqué lived after their breakup, but in April this year, she decided to leave Spain to completely break up with Piqué. The destination is Miami, where Shakira used to live, and she is leading a new life with her children in the property she used to own as a vacation home after moving to Spain.
Incidentally, the investigation into Shakira’s alleged tax evasion went on for about three years, but last May, a Spanish court dismissed Shakira’s claim of innocence on the grounds that sufficient evidence had been gathered. In addition, Shakira’s side refused to accept a plea bargain from the prosecution, so it was decided to fight the case in court. The trial is scheduled to take place in Spain this November.
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