Shakira had the best dates for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards: her sons.
The 46-year-old shimmered as she stepped out at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, September 12, wearing a gold backless gown by Versace. She kept the color scheme going with golden Piferi platforms and accessorized with gold jewelry.
While Shakira dressed to impress on the pink carpet, it was her two kids who stole the show. Milan, 10, and Sasha, 8, posed beside their mom in matching black and gold tracksuits as she prepared for her big night.
Shakira will receive the Video Vanguard Award during the ceremony. She is also set to perform at the show for the first time in more than 15 years.
Speaking to MTV during the pre-show, Shakira gushed that she felt “humbled” by the honor. Teasing her “dynamic performance,” Shakira said, “I tried to synthesize my entire career in, like, 10 minutes, so I did the best I could.”
Shakira shares her sons with Gerard Piqué, whom she dated for 12 years before splitting in June 2022. She divulged three months later that the breakup was “incredibly difficult” on their children.
“I’ve tried to conceal the situation in front of my kids. I try to do it and to protect them, because that’s my number one mission in life,” she told Elle. “But then they hear things in school from their friends or they come across some disagreeable, unpleasant news online, and it just affects them, you know?”
Shakira later opened up in June about dealing with speculation that Piqué, 36, had an affair while her father, William Mebarak Chadid, was hospitalized. “[My dad] went to Barcelona to console me after I was consumed with sadness because of my separation,” she told People en Español. “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.”
Since the split, Piqué has moved on with Clara Chia Marti. In April, the retired soccer player made a dig at Shakira’s fans. “I am very disappointed with what society is,” he said in a clip shared via Twitter. “So my ex is Latin American … you don’t know what I’ve gotten on social media from her fans. These people have no lives.”
Shakira seemingly responded to the jab at the time, tweeting in Spanish, “Proud to be Latin American.”
In May, Shakira sparked romance rumors with Jimmy Butler when she posted a video of herself at one of the 33-year-old Miami Heat player’s basketball games. Two months later, they were spotted arriving at Novikov Restaurant & Bar in London.
“They have been out a few times, but things are very new and it’s too early to tell if there’s long-term potential there,” a source told Us Weekly at the time, noting that the duo’s 13-year age difference “doesn’t bother” Shakira.
The insider added that Butler “makes Shakira smile, and she feels happy spending time with him.”
Last month, a second source revealed that the pair had “been getting progressively closer” and Shakira liked that Butler is “different from other men” she has dated in the past. “She appreciates how he takes the lead in the relationship,” the insider said. “He’s the one who makes plans with her, pursues her, and it makes her feel valued.”
While Shakira and Butler are taking their romance slowly, she’s “definitely open to seeing where things go,” according to the source.
