Shawn Discusses “Brutal” Rumors About His Relationship With Camila
He gave a long n’ sweet quote about his ex.
Shawn Mendes has lived out a lot of moments in the public eye — including his on-again, off-again relationship with Camila Cabello. The duo dated from July 2019 to November 2021, but even after calling things off, they spent a lot of time together. In April 2023, they were caught canoodling at Coachella — only about one month after Mendes was seemingly linked to Sabrina Carpenter.
When Carpenter released Short n’ Sweet in August, songs like “Coincidence” and “Taste” prompted more speculation about Mendes and Cabello’s relationship — and their rumored love triangle with Carpenter. But Mendes doesn’t pay too much attention to rumors.
When it comes to the public weighing in on his love life, Mendes acknowledged that it could be “brutal.” However, he maintained that his and Cabello’s strong connection made it a lot less challenging.
“Honestly, I think Camila and I have just done the best job at preserving our private little fire of love for each other,” he said, during a Sept. 30 appearance on the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast. “Because no matter how strong mentally you are, when there are millions of people commenting on it, it’s so hard not to be affected by it and to be swayed by it and to be inspired by it — to desire it because people desire it or to hate it because people hate it.”
According to Mendes, the exes (because no, they’re not currently together) both try to block out that noise. “I feel like her and I have just worked extremely hard to just protect each other and to protect that love,” he said to Shetty. “I don’t really go on social media, so I don’t really see or care what people say about my love life or relationships because it’s honestly too detrimental to the actual relationship itself that I’ve become pretty strict on that part of it.”
He added, “We’re not in a movie. This is not a movie. … This is real life. This is real love, and love is confusing and hard and goes through dips, goes through pauses, goes through breaks, goes through so much.”
When situations do come up (like potential miscommunications or quotes that come across as shady), Mendes said he relies on “immense honesty” and “overcommunication” to smooth things over. “I’ll be the first to text her. She’ll be the first to text me. So as long as we’re good, all the noise is just noise,” he added.
According to him, a good baseline of respect helps. “I don’t think either of us would ever cross a line. We deeply respect each other,” he said. “I’m just lucky she’s an amazing human being and she’s incredibly understanding and thoughtful and caring, so communicating with her is not difficult.”
Mendes also spoke more generally about compatibility in relationships. “Love is a lot, but partnership is more than love and I think it has a lot to do with how you support each other in your day-to-day life and really being honest about who you are,” he said. “And making sure that someone that you’re with is in support of that and doesn’t have to bend themselves entirely to be in support of that and vice versa.”
