NEED TO KNOW
Miguel is getting candid about why things didn’t work out with Nazanin Mandi, despite their many years together.
After largely keeping quiet about what happened between the pair, who split in 2022, the singer-songwriter opened up about what led to their divorce on the most recent edition of Club Shay Shay, explaining that he “wasn’t whole.”
“I’m not saying that I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I got all the answers now,’ but even being able to say and admit that I’m not whole … it completely changes the way that I approach things,” Miguel, 40, explained.
Being primarily focused on his career, the musician said he “wasn’t in the headspace to be with anyone,” and “didn’t know how to communicate that.”
Noting that “there’s a lot of things that I did wrong,” Miguel said he didn’t “set up” his relationship with Mandi, 39, properly.
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“I didn’t just build the trust as just a friendship to protect that later on, the becoming a relationship, the way that I could have.”
If he were to do everything again, he would just be honest with Mandi.
“I would have really said, ‘Hey, I’m actually not ready right now!’ But when you meet someone and you’re like, ‘Man, I really need something special here,’ I can see where everything happened,” said Miguel.
Regardless of what went on between them, Miguel said that he and Mandi still have “a tremendous amount of love” and are “working very hard to not make it about what it was.”
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The musician has moved on, revealing in September that he quietly welcomed a baby last year with partner Margaret Zhang, and said he received some healing through his track “Always Time” off his latest album CAOS.
“It allowed me to kind of look at myself and go, ‘You know, I made a lot of mistakes, man.’ I’m not perfect! Never been perfect. Never said I was perfect. And I’m a much more aware person now. And I hate that I had to learn it the hard way, but we must continue.”
Miguel ended the conversation by saying of Mandi, “She’s an amazing person and deserves the best.”
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Court documents obtained by PEOPLE in October 2022 showed that Mandi filed for divorce from the singer-songwriter, citing irreconcilable differences, eight months after the couple announced that they were officially back together in February 2022. Their reconciliation had come after PEOPLE confirmed in September 2021 that they were separating after 17 years together.
“After 17 years together, Miguel and Nazanin Mandi have decided to separate and have been for some time now. The couple both wish each other well,” a rep for the couple told PEOPLE at the time.
Miguel and Mandi dated for 10 years before getting engaged in 2016. The pair were married at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Simi Valley, California, in November 2018.
