Shakira has sparked fresh romance speculation after being spotted leaving a Los Angeles hotel with actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.
Photos shared by DeuxMoi and covered by Just Jared showed the Colombian superstar and The Lincoln Lawyer star outside the Sunset Tower Hotel this week.
The sighting came during a break from Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, which brought her to the Los Angeles area with shows at Intuit Dome in Inglewood before she continued through California.
Neither Shakira nor Garcia-Rulfo has publicly confirmed a relationship. For now, the story is a celebrity sighting: two high-profile stars were photographed leaving the same L.A. hotel, and the photos quickly turned into dating buzz.
The L.A. Photos Started the Speculation
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Just Jared identified the pair as Shakira, 49, and Garcia-Rulfo, 45, and said they were seen leaving the Sunset Tower Hotel together. The site described the outing as “seemingly” a date, which is the key word here.
The photos show Shakira and Garcia-Rulfo in the same place at the same time, enough to set off celebrity speculation but not enough to treat them as a confirmed couple.
Shakira has spent the past few years rebuilding her life after her split from Gerard Piqué, moving from Barcelona, focusing on her sons and returning to the road with one of the biggest tours of her career.
Shakira Recently Said Romance Was Not Her Priority
The sighting drew extra attention because Shakira recently said she did not have room for romance.
In an interview with The Times, she said there was “no space or time” in her life for a relationship and that her children were her priority. She also said she felt she was at the “peak” of her career.
That does not rule out a dinner, a friendship or a new private connection. It does make the dating chatter less simple than the photos alone. Shakira has publicly framed this stage of her life around motherhood, work and momentum rather than a search for a new relationship.
Garcia-Rulfo Is One of Netflix’s Familiar Leading Men
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Garcia-Rulfo is best known to U.S. audiences as Mickey Haller on Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer. The streaming drama stars him as a Los Angeles defense attorney who works cases from the back seat of his Lincoln.
Netflix Tudum recently confirmed that Garcia-Rulfo will return as Mickey Haller for the show’s fifth and final season.
He has also appeared in films including A Man Called Otto, The Magnificent Seven and Jurassic World Rebirth. People previously linked him to Audrey McGraw, the daughter of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, though the pair kept their relationship mostly private.