Shakira has denied the mounting tax evasion allegations against her describing how she’s endured the what she called the “darkest hours” of her life as the Spanish government threatens her with up to eight years in prison if found guilty of stiffing the country of millions of dollars in taxes.

Maintaining her innocence, the “Hips Don’t Lie” hit maker, 45, said she has been in the throes of a legal battle for allegedly failing to pay $14.7 million in taxes when she lived in Spain between 2012 and 2014, a claim she denied. 

Spanish prosecutors insist Shakira did live in the country during that time and said she bought a home in Barcelona in May 2012 where she lived with her former pro footballer partner Gerard Piqué and their son, born in the country in 2013.

At the time, Shakira said she was officially resident in the Bahamas but prosecutors claim she spent most of her time in Spain. 

“I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit,”

“So as of today, I owe zero to them. And finally, I took advice from accounting specialist company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, so I was confident that I was doing things correctly and transparently from day one.”

“However, even without evidence to support these fictional claims, as they usually do, they’ve resorted to a salacious press campaign to try to sway people, and apply pressure in the media along with the threat of reputational damage in order to coerce settlement agreements.” 

The Columbian singer with real name real name Shakira Mebarak vows to fight the case as a “matter of principle.”

If found guilty, Shakira may be fined $23.5 million in addition to jail time.