14 DAY TRIAL // Shakira’s ex-boyfriend and former business partner Antonio de la Rua is taking her to court for breach of contract and loss of profit, asking for $100 million (€76.64 million) in damages. More details about the lawsuit have just emerged.
As we also reported at the time de la Rua filed the papers in court, he was saying that he’d helped Shakira become an international star and continued to oversee her business after they had broken up in 2010.
However, in 2011, without as much as a warning, Shakira fired him and had him replaced, which immediately translated into considerable loss of profit for de la Rua.
E! Online has gotten ahold of the court documents, which provide more insight into de la Rua’s claims. Admittedly, the agreement he and Shakira had was verbal, but legally binding nonetheless.
He also says that the singer personally asked him to become involved in the campaign to build the “Shakira brand,” which he gladly accepted, having already some experience with this sort of thing after handling his father’s campaign, which saw him become President of Argentina.
The agreement between the two parties was that he would not have a fix salary for his work but rather to get a share of the profits made by the artist and all her business endeavors under the “Shakira brand.”
The partnership continued to be effective even after the two broke up, court documents state. It was suddenly and without proper cause terminated in 2011, with Shakira and her team deliberately working on discrediting de la Rua ever since.
“From that day, [Shakira] Mebarak has adopted a strategy of trying to rewrite history, which includes denying the existence of a partnership, belittling de la Rua's contributions to the Partnership, and mischaracterizing past events,” the suit reads.
“Perhaps having moved on in her personal life, Mebarak felt that remaining business partners with de la Rua created difficulties in her new relationship. Whether that is true or not, Mebarak is not entitled to ignore the fact that, as a business partner, de la Rua has a financial interest in the Partnership that exists entirely separate and apart from their former romantic relationship,” adds the same.
Shakira is now dating football star Gerard Pique and they’re expecting their first child together. De la Rua is obviously implying that she had him fired to please her new man.
The singer is yet to address the claims made in the lawsuit.