'Not out of cowardice or guilt': Shakira reveals she agreed to a deal in tax fraud trial to 'protect' her children

Singer Shakira has spoken out after she settled a Spanish tax fraud trial last year.

The Colombian Hips Don't Lie hitmaker, 47, shared an open letter with Spanish publication el Mundo, which has also been translated by the likes of Page Six and US Weekly.

Shakira said in the piece that she struck a deal in a bid to protect her kids, but felt like "a state institution seemed more interested in publicly burning me at the stake than in listening to my reasons".

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As reported at the time, she acknowledged she had failed to pay the Spanish government €14.5 million (about $AU23.9 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014.

She received a fine of €7 million ($AU11.55 million approximately) and a suspended three-year sentence.

In the letter, Shakira said: "I want to leave my children the legacy of a woman who explained her reasons calmly and in her own time, when she considered it necessary, not when she was forced to do so."

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"I need them to know that I made the decisions I made to protect them, to be by their side and move on with my life. Not out of cowardice or guilt.

"I want you to understand that my love for Spain and my dear Spanish friends and family still endures, but not everything is the same. Sometimes commitment to the truth is more important than one's own comfort.

"If at that moment I made the decision to make a pact for my children, in this moment I make the decision to speak, because it is what my conscience asks of me," a translation reads.

The singer also referenced her relationship with ex Gerard Piqué.

"In 2011 I wanted my relationship with Gerard Piqué to prosper, who at that time was tied to Spain for work reasons, but traveling to Spain generated many complications for me, because it forced me to be away from my centers of work activity," she claimed.

She insisted: "Some technicians from the Spanish Tax Agency presented a childish and moralistic story in which I was a singer who avoided complying with her tax obligations and they were the representatives of justice and decency. The reality was very different: I always fulfilled my obligations."

"My finances were investigated by institutions as unsuspicious as the White House or the IRS and approved by other countries in the European Union, and in all that time they never found the slightest sign of illegality," she claimed.

"They wanted to make public opinion believe that I did not pay my taxes, when the truth is that I paid much more than I should have."

She concluded by saying she was trying to "turn the page".

Four months ago, it was reported that her second tax fraud investigation could be thrown out.

-Additional reporting by AP.

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