Shakira has vowed never to marry - because the tabloid press would make a mockery of her divorce if she ever split from her partner.

The Colombian singer refuses to tie the knot with investment banker Antonio de la Rua, her boyfriend of nine years, because she doesn't want their nuptials or a possible break-up splashed across the front pages.

She tells Rolling Stone magazine, "It's funny how the papers want to see you married, and then they want to see you divorced. Well, I won't do any of it."

But the Hips Don't Lie hitmaker is keen to start a family with de la Rua, insisting they don't need to be married to have children.

She said, "My body feels like it is asking to reproduce, to have a huge belly and carry babies."