Shakira Says Her 92-Year-Old Dad Is Her Best Friend—"The Man I Love The Most"
Colombian superstar Shakira has expressed deep love and admiration for her father over the years. "[He] is not "Shakira's father, rather I am the daughter of [Chadid William Mebarak], and he is the best father that life could give me," she told the Colombian Report.
At a Colombian Book Festival in 2020, Shakira shared that her father, a Lebanese immigrant, journalist, and author was her "first audience" and that he has the “soul of a poet and storyteller.” The long hours he spent typing away on his typewriter inspired Shakira to write her first songs.
"[He is] my cornerstone, my best friend, not only in my career but in my life,” added Shakira. At the time, she was pregnant with her first child, and her father expressed worry about the world his grandson would grow up in.
“I can not predict if my son will come into this world with more advantages or more burdens," Shakira responded. "I hope he has the example of his grandfather, with whom he has a lot to share, because my father is a person who always helps resolve small conflicts, and for that I am very proud of him."
Two years later, Shakira's father helped her endure the most difficult conflict of her life when she discovered that her long-time partner and the father of her two sons, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, was having an affair. They met on the video set for her 2010 World Cup anthem “Waka Waka.”
“The suffering I felt was probably the greatest I had ever experienced in my entire life, and it kept me from functioning at times,” she told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “It felt like someone had stabbed a hole in my chest. And the sensation was so real, almost physical. I physically felt like I had a hole in my chest and that people could see through me.”
That June, the pair jointly announced they were splitting up and the paparazzi mobbed Shakira’s house and her kids’ school in Barcelona. Her then-90-year-old father flew in to check on her and suffered a horrific fall with doctors predicting he would likely die. Thankfully, after six surgeries, he survived.
“When it rains, it pours,” she told Rolling Stone. “It was crazy, how many things I had to deal with at the same time.” In another interview, she shared that, at the time, she thought she "wasn't going to survive" the pain life had thrown at her without her father by her side.
"The man I have loved the most in my life, my father, was leaving me when I needed him the most. I couldn’t talk to him, or go to my best friend for the advice I needed so much."
However, his "hard and slow" recovery turned out to be a source of inspiration and strength as she worked through her heartbreak and prioritized her sons.
"My dad is the biggest example of resilience, and my mother has been by his side day and night.," she added. "They have both been a reflection of that dream that didn't come true for me.
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