Shakira and Jimmy Butler’s Romance Is ‘Very New’: He Makes Her ‘Smile’

Shakira and Miami Heat player Jimmy Butler are taking it slow as they continue to go out on dates.

“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 exclusively told Us Weekly, adding that their 13-year age difference “doesn’t bother” Shakira, 46, “whatsoever.”

The source continued, “Jimmy makes Shakira smile, and she feels happy spending time with him.”

While Shakira’s kids have been longtime fans of the athlete — she shares sons Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7, with ex Gerard Piqué — she and Butler “have only known each other for a short while, and just recently started following each other on social media,” the insider told Us. After Shakira shared a video of herself cheering for the Miami Heat at a game in May, Butler “liked” a video of her acoustic performance via Instagram.

Prior to making headlines with Butler, Shakira and Piqué, 36, ended split in June 2022 after more than 10 years together. While reports surfaced claiming the soccer player had been unfaithful to Shakira, neither star has directly addressed the rumors. Not long after the breakup news, Piqué ​was spotted packing on the PDA with model Clara Chía in August 2022. Piqué confirmed their relationship in February.

Shakira has made no secret of how hard the split — and Piqué’s new romance — has been on her, throwing shade at her ex and Chía’s relationship on her track “BZRP Music Session #53,” on which she collaborated with DJ Bizarrap, in January.

“You thought you’d hurt me, but you made me tougher,” she sings in Spanish. “No hard feelings, baby, I wish you the best with my supposed replacement.”

Shakira later revealed that she had been “betrayed” by her ex while her dad, 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 in June. “While he was at [my son] 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.”