Retired Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué decried the Latin American heritage of his ex-girlfriend Shakira over the weekend and denounced her fans’ criticisms of him as “barbarities.”
The retired soccer player told sports journalist Gerard Romero that Shakira’s fans have sent him “millions” of insults on social media since their split in June. Piqué, who allegedly cheated on Shakira and has been dating model Clara Chia Marti, said the vitriol was overwhelming.
“In the beginning, it was bad and it reached a point where if I had let things get to me, I would have thrown myself off a cliff,” Piqué during Saturday’s Twitch stream with Romero, who has since published the video on YouTube, per a translation by Page Six.
The couple separated after nearly 11 years together and announced their split in a joint statement. At the time, they requested privacy for the sake of their children. But later, Piqué went Instagram-official with his new flame and Shakira released several breakup songs.
Piqué went further in his interview with Romero, saying Shakira’s fans “care about things that aren’t important” and blamed their heritage.
“For example, my ex-partner is Latin American,” Piqué told Romero, per a translation. “You can’t imagine [the comments] I’ve gotten on social media from her fans. Millions of barbarities! But I don’t care about any of it. Honestly, not at all because I don’t know them.”
“These people have no lives and why should I care?” he continued. “I’ll never meet them, they’re robots, you know?”
The former Spain and FC Barcelona player said the only things worth caring about are “serious health issues, family and relationships.” He added that his nonchalance “is healthy because if you care about people’s opinions, you’re dead,” and said he tries to show online critics he doesn’t care “because it gets them angrier.”
Fans of Colombian-born Shakira were enraged at Piqué’s comments about Latin Americans — and responded on Twitter.
Shakira said on Twitter that she was “proud to be Latin American” and included flag emojis of nearly every relevant nation. She announced on Monday that she and her children are moving to Miami — and leaving Barcelona for good.
“Thanks to everyone who surfed so many waves with me there in Barcelona, the city where I learned that friendship is undoubtedly longer than love,” she wrote in Spanish. “Thank you to everyone who has been there to cheer me up, dried my tears, inspired me and made me grow.”