Shakira, the singer, 35, and her boyfriend, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, 25, are the new parents of baby boy Milan Pique Mebarak, the AP reports.
“Just like his father, baby Milan became a member of FC Barcelona at birth,” a statement posted on Shakira’s website read.
Baby Milan came in weighing at six pounds and six ounces. Both baby and mom are in “excellent health.”
Shakira has been eager to share baby news throughout her pregnancy, tweeting photos of her big (and bare) belly and sharing the sex of her son in October.
“I’m very excited,” Piqué told Catalan radio station RAC1 in November. “I’ve experienced [the pregnancy] with the same ease with which I try to live everything. Although everyone tells me that will change when he’s born because my life will be different.”
Pique’s grandfather, Amador Bernabeu, said the couple was delighted.
“I still haven’t seen him (Milan) in person but I know he is dark-haired and weighs 2.9 kilograms (6 lbs),” Bernabeu told the press.
Congratulatory messages rained down on the couple from both sides of the Atlantic.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was among the first to wish them the best, while the Pies Descalzos (Shoeless) Foundation for poor children set up by Shakira in 1997 sent a Twitter message saying, “The children and Pies Descalzos team are happy for Milan’s birth. We love you Shakira!”
Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas tweeted a welcome to the baby, saying he “can’t wait to meet you.”
Antonella Roccuzzo, the girlfriend of Argentine soccer ace Lionel Messi, tweeted “Welcome to the world Milan Pique Mebarak. Now Thiaguin will have a great friend,” in reference to her recently-born son.
One of the big surprises was child’s first name. In a statement, Shakira said Milan was of central European origin and meant “loved, full of grace, loving,” in Slavic and “unification” in Sanksrit.
Milan, coincidentally, is also the name of the famous soccer team from that Italian city and Barcelona’s next rival in the European Champions League.
Bernabeu admitted the family was surprised by the choice and confessed he had never heard of the name. “I think Milan will become fashionable,” he told the radio.
The grandfather, a former director of the Barcelona club, made sure Milan was registered as a club member as soon as he was born.
Shakira and the 25-year-old Pique have been a couple for the past two years and are regularly featured in gossip magazines and TV programs in both Europe and Latin America.
Congrats to the new parents!
