Shakira’s had a busy few years. She gave birth to son Milan (with soccer player boyfriend Gerard Pique) last January as she juggled judging duties on The Voice. That television stint and her latest album are big plays to push her talent to the global stage. She did complain that she missed out on the “4 months maternity” that “every woman on earth” gets, but that was her choice. Most women would love to have the option of 4 months maternity leave, and I think Shakira was a bit confused about reality when she made that comment.

Shakira teamed up with Rihanna for her latest single, “Can’t Remember to Forget You.” The video features both of them humping walls with their booties and cuddling topless together. It’s easy to assume they groped each other so that people would watch the video. Shakira reveals that there was a more pressing reason for the woman-on-woman steaminess. Gerard will no longer allow Shakira to film videos with men. Does that set off alarm bells for any of you?

Her new album: “It’s been two-and-a-half years of making songs, trashing them, doing them again, doing eight versions of each song, having a baby, doing ‘The Voice,’ coming back to the studio, reconnecting with my songs.”

The call of motherhood: “Sometimes I yearn to stay at home with Gerard and Milan. For so long I decided to have what I have now, this family, that it’s logical for me to feel divided. A part of me – well, all of me – wants to be with them all the time and be a housewife. But there’s another part of me that still wants to make music and that’s still pleased with success. I won’t deny it. I know it sometimes sounds almost immoral to admit you like success, but I like it — I like it.”

She’s not a gym rat: “The gym is too demanding for someone who already has so many demands. I want to do something fun, and sports trim me down as much as the gym. Tennis is great because I spend an hour moving and concentrating on that little yellow ball. It’s great therapy.”

Gerard won’t let her work with men anymore: “He’s very territorial, and since he no longer lets me do videos with men, well, I have to do them with women. It’s more than implied in our relationship that I can’t do videos like I used to. It’s out of the question — which I like, by the way. I like that he protects his turf and he values me, in a way that the only person that he would ever let graze my thigh would be Rihanna.”

Pique dedicates his goals to Shakira: “That’s how he won me over. During the World Cup, he’d say, ‘If I score a goal, I’ll dedicate it to you.’ But we weren’t dating then.”

Her duet with Blake Shelton: “I told him I wanted to work with Nashville people. I was a little tired of L.A. I wanted people with another point of view, real people with roots with whom I feel comfortable working in the same room. And I told Blake I wanted to do a song that had the narrative of a country song, that was picturesque, that was a real song. But it also needed to suit me, because after all, I’m Colombian. I was so nervous. You have no idea. I was so scared he was going to say, ‘No, Shakira. I love you, but no.'”

[From Billboard]

All relationships do require compromise of some sort, but I’m giving the side eye to Gerard’s rule of Shakira not filming videos with men. People makes it sound like Shakira had to get permission to even work with Rihanna. I guess Shakira’s fine with it though. Shakira has already admitted that she keeps “meat over bone” because Gerard prefers it, but she never says what she prefers. Maybe this dynamic works for them, but it would drive me crazy.

Photos courtesy of Billboard & WENN