- Shawn Mendes found himself the hot topic of Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet this summer
- The pair became involved in a love triangle which also concerned Mendes’s ex, Camila Cabello
- Now Mendes appears to have told his side of the story
Sabrina Carpenter is having a bumper year – with six Grammy nominations, a number one album and a 5x Platinum single for her song of the summer, Espresso.
But now the pop star, 25, appears to have another reason to celebrate – as Shawn Mendes has seemingly just admitted his part in their now infamous love triangle with Camila Cabello.
While fans thought that most of the songs on Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet album would be about her (now rumored to be ex) boyfriend Barry Keoghan, a fair few nodded to her brief fling with Mendes – and they’re scathing, to say the least.
Although no names were mentioned, in an appearance on the SiriusXM’s How’s Life podcast this week, Mendes, 26, acknowledged that he did visit an ex while dating someone else.
The singer said that he’d been “with someone” when he decided to go “hang out with my ex.”
“I, two days before going to hang out with my ex, express, I’m gonna go hang out with my ex because I have unresolved feelings,” he said. “Maybe instead of two days, it could have been two weeks… I’m an impulsive person.”
Putting two and two together, it sounds like Mendes is speaking about going to visit Cabello when he was with Carpenter.
But he even sounds a little regretful for his actions.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is no one gets out of this life without getting hurt, and no one gets out of this life without hurting someone,” he added.
Explain the love triangle…
First linked in 2014, Mendes and Cabello didn’t make their relationship public for another five years, when they were spotted kissing in a cafe.
The pair continued their romance for another two years – but then in a joint statement on November 18, 2021, the pair announced their split.
However, on April 23 last year, Mendes and Cabello were seen locking lips at Coachella festival. Fans were overjoyed by the reconciliation, but it wasn’t meant to be, and Cabello went on to speak about their attempt to get back together on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
That’s all well and good – but it doesn’t appear to be the full story, because in February 2023, Mendes and Carpenter were spotted on a date together, looking “verrrry comfortable”, and were then seen strolling around LA together just over a week later.
In March, the pair left Miley Cyrus’s album launch party together – and by the 13th of that month, a source had confirmed, “Shawn and Sabrina are seeing each other. They have been hanging out a lot and trying to keep things low-key. They were at a birthday party together a couple weeks ago and were cute together. Shawn is happy.”
While they may have been trying to keep things casual, fans were quick to notice that Mendes had been wearing a necklace featuring Carpenter’s birthstone for three months.
But on March 17, four days after the album launch party, Mendes revealed that he and Carpenter “were not dating” – and, of course, the infamous Coachella pics surfaced the next month.
Which songs on Sabrina Carpenter’s album are about Shawn Mendes?
It all sounds very messy – and like any great artist, Carpenter appears to have channeled her feelings about the situation into her work.
The first track on her now-double platinum Short n’ Sweet album is titled Taste, and she sings, “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you.”
She also appears to reference the love triangle in Coincidence.
Carpenter croons, “Last week, you didn’t have any doubts / This week, you’re holding space for her tongue in your mouth / Now shе’s sendin’ you some pictures wеarin’ less and less / Tryna turn the past into the present tense, huh / Suckin’ up to all of your mutual friends.”
In Sharpest Tool, she sings, “We never talk about how you found God at your ex’s house / Always made sure that the phone was face down / Seems like overnight, I’m just a b**** you hate now.”
While noone is namechecked in the tracks, it does appear that Carpenter is making a thinly veiled dig at Mendes and Cabello – but she didn’t stop there, as Mendes seems to get another going over in another of the tracks.
In Dumb & Poetic, Carpenter roasts Mendes’s softboi behavior, singing, “Save all your breath for your floor meditation” (he has waxed lyrical about his love of the mindful practice), and, “I promise the mushrooms aren’t changing your life” (only a week ago, Mendes admitted to experimenting with the substance).
She even references Mendes’s fellow Canadian, Leonard Cohen. “Try to come off like you’re soft and well-spoken, jack off to lyrics by Leonard Cohen”, she belts – while Mendes recently announced that his upcoming self-titled album will feature a cover of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah.
