Shakira is embracing her new freedom now that her ex-husband isn't 'attracting me'

Shakira's latest album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, is a product of both dissolution and discovery. The record, which arrived last week, was created in the wake of her breakup with Gerard Pique in 2022. During a recent interview with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonshe described the ways in which the end of their marriage gave her the freedom to explore more fulfilling avenues.

“I haven't had time because of the husband factor,” Shakira explained about being able to lock down her creatives. “Now I am without a husband. Yes, the husband dragged me down. Now I am free. Now I can really work.” With that weight lifted off her shoulders, Shakira created her first full-length studio album in seven years.

“Creating this body of work has been an alchemical process. As I wrote each song, I was rebuilding myself,” Shakira said in a statement when the record was first announced. “As I sang them, my tears turned into diamonds and my vulnerability into strength.”

In a review of the album, Rolling rock wrote: “In Las Mujeres Ya No LloranShakira can finally turn the page on these tumultuous past two years and reintroduce herself – not as Shakira the soccer player, not Shakira the heartthrob – but Shakira fucking Mebarak, international pop icon and undefeated champion.

With this album, Shakira was able to approach her healing and overall reshaping of her narrative on her own terms. “For too long we've been sent to cry with the script in our hands and no end just because we're women,” she said. The Tonight Show. “We have to hide our pain in front of our children, in front of society. We have to heal in a certain way.” Shakira has two children, ages 11 and 9, with Piqué.

“I don't think anyone should tell us how to heal,” he continued. “No one should tell a wolf how to lick its wounds, you know? I think now women decide when to cry, how to cry and for how long. No one should tell us how to deal with life's difficulties.”