The Truth About Shakira And Gerard Pique's Relationship

When Shakira takes the stage at Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, she'll have another powerhouse by her side: Jennifer Lopez. Yup, Shakira and Jenny from the Block are headlining this year's halftime show. And for those of us who aren't huge sports fans but love listening to music, it's easily the night's biggest moment (along with the funny commercials and endless snacks, of course). Oh, and fun fact: The game also falls on Shakira's 43rd birthday.

While Shakira's halftime sidekick is a triple-threat (singer, dancer, actress), her off-stage partner-in-crime is pretty talented himself. The singer's long-term boyfriend Gerard Piqué is a Spanish soccer player who, along with the Spanish National Football Team, won the World Cup in 2010. In the past almost-decade that they've been together, they've created their own little family — and for the record, they don't plan on tying the knot anytime soon.

According to E! News, Shakira and the 32-year-old soccer player met on the set of her "Waka Waka" video, which was the World Cup anthem in 2010, and they started dating a year later. They filmed a music video together yet again in 2017 for Shakira's song "Me Enamoré," which she described to Telemundo (via E! News) as "a narration of how I met Gerard and how I fell in love." Lyrics in the song include, "Mi vida me empezó a cambiar / La noche que te conocí," which translates to, "My life began to change the night I met you."

Reflecting on their first meeting, Shakira told 60 Minutes recently, "I wasn't a soccer fan, so I didn't know who he was. But when I saw the video, I was like, 'Hmm. That one's kind of cute.'" In the same interview, Piqué mentioned, "For me, it was, like, very shocking. I had to dance," and the couple laughed while discussing his dancing. It sounds like fate — and those "Waka Waka" moves — really brought them together.

In case Shakira's lyrics about her boyfriend didn't make clear how strongly she feels about Gerard Piqué, the following quotes definitely will. Shakira told Elle in 2013 that meeting Piqué restored her faith — in both religion and in love. "I think, if you can prove the existence of God, it can only be proven through love. I even had lost my faith for a while," she said, explaining she was becoming agnostic at the time. "And it was really hard, because I was always very religious, and for a few years, maybe because — it sounds so corny — I was not feeling the love like it was supposed to be, I started to think that there was no God. And suddenly I meet Gerard and the sun comes out."

Corny or not, that sounds like a beautiful relationship. As for how they maintain their connection, Shakira told the magazine, "He has his own world and that's actually one of the healthiest things about the relationship. I know that he's the one person who is with me not because of any interest other than the love that unites us." No wonder they're still going strong all these years later.

Shakira and Gerard Piqué have two sons together: 5-year-old Sasha and 7-year-old Milan. And as it turns out, the boys are already taking after their soccer star dad. According to the Daily Mail, the proud parents cheered on the youngsters at their weekly soccer practice in Miami. Shakira reportedly had a huge smile on her face throughout.

According to Us Weekly (via Viva magazine), Shakira sometimes goes a month without seeing her kids because of her busy work schedule, but they stay in "constant communication" and FaceTime. "We don't have a written deal to share the tasks or anything like that, but we both are very involved in parenting and try to sort it out the best we can," she explained of her parenting dynamic with Piqué. "We support each other and we also find a huge help in our families. We don't know a different way to do it!" Tag-teaming parenting sounds like the best way to do it, given their undeniably hectic schedules.

If you're waiting for these two to walk down the aisle anytime soon, you're probably in for a long wait. In an interview with 60 Minutes in January 2020, Shakira admitted, "To tell you the truth, marriage scares the s*** out of me." She continued to explain her dynamic with Gerard Piqué as such: "I don't want him to see me as the wife. I'd rather him see me as his girlfriend. His lover, his girlfriend. It's like a little forbidden fruit, you know? I wanna keep him on his toes. I want him to think that anything's possible depending on behavior."

Well, no matter what you call them, these two are clearly committed to one another and couldn't seem more in love. There's no doubt Piqué will be cheering on Shakira during Sunday's big halftime show — and hopefully he'll bring along their two adorable sons to cheer on their mom, too.