Shakira won't lie, the past year has been a difficult one to navigate.
The "Hips Don't Lie" singer recently recalled how she was dealing with the hospitalization of her father William Mebarak Chadid around the same time she was processing her split from Gerard Piqué.
As Shakira recounted in a cover story for People en Español (per People's translation), the hospitalization occurred last year during William's visit to Barcelona. The three-time Grammy winner said her father had come to "console me after I was consumed with sadness because of my separation" from Gerard—with whom she shares kids Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7—and that her dad was "gravely injured in an accident" during her eldest son's first communion.
"Everything happened at once," she told the outlet. "My home was falling apart. I was finding out through the press that I had been betrayed while my dad was in the ICU."
Shakira remembered feeling like she couldn't "survive" everything she was going through and how hard it was to not be able to go to her father—who she called her "best friend"—for advice during this time.
And while the "She Wolf" artist told People en Español William's recovery has been "very hard and slow," she noted that they were able to celebrate his 91st birthday in September.
"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," she added. "My dad is the biggest example of resilience, and my mother has been by his side day and night. 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."
Shakira previously spoke about her dad's hospitalization after photos of herself in an ambulance last year spread online.
"Guys, I'm getting a lot of concern that I was seen in an ambulance in Barcelona recently," she tweeted June 4, 2022. "I just wanted to let you know that those photos are from last weekend (the 28th), when my dad unfortunately had a bad fall and I accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital where he is recovering now. Please do send all your best wishes his way and thank you all as always for all of your love & support."
Shakira and Gerard announced their breakup in June 2022 after more than a decade together. Since the split, there's been speculation that the musician has made references to the former FC Barcelona player—who is dating Clara Chia Marti—in some of her social media posts and songs.
But amid the headlines from the breakup, both Shakira and Gerard have expressed their desire to protect their children's privacy. And recently, she shared her desire to move on from the past.
"It's true that when I felt most lost, music put me in the road back to myself," Shakira said during her acceptance speech at Billboard's Latin Women in Music gala in May, per Billboard. "But the most important lessons I learned from other women, and for them I wrote what I wrote and I sang what I sang. Because only a woman can love until she's ripped apart; can speak with the most brutal honesty; can sing with anger; dance in ecstasy and be brought to tears with emotion. Only a woman can do that."