Inside Shawn Mendes And Camila Cabello's Relationship
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's relationship goes way back — even further than most fans realize. "She's been one of my best friends since I was 15 years old," he told Entertainment Tonight. So, when these two were spotted hand in hand for the very first time in 2019, it was a major deal.
Today, these two only make sense. Both on and off the stage, they make the perfect pair. However, it took them both years to even admit that they were meant for each other (even though all of us found it obvious each and every time we saw them perform "Señorita" together). When they did finally announce that they were official, fans were freaking out. "He just feels like home to me," Cabello gushed during an interview on "Lorraine." Even Mendes still can't believe she's in love with him. "It's amazing," he said on SiriusXM. "It's like a movie."
Looking back, their love story really is like no other. Here's an inside look into Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's relationship.
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello met while on tour with Austin Mahone
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello first met while busy doing what they do best — singing. Yet, as the opening acts for Austin Mahone's first tour back in 2014, they were much too busy performing than flirting. In fact, "I didn't talk to anybody," Mendes later said during an interview with V Magazine. When he wasn't on stage, this up-and-coming musician would hang out on his tour bus playing guitar instead.
Cabello, on the other hand, seemed to be more of the social butterfly. She would often be seen riding around on her scooter or doing cartwheels around the stage. It also helped that she was already a part of a group called Fifth Harmony. Even still, she was the only member who was never too busy to try and strike up a conversation with Mendes. "He was just playing with a guitar, and I was like, 'Hi! Nice to meet you,'" she reminisced to Rolling Stone. "We didn't really hang around much during Austin's tour. It was Shawn's first tour ever, so he was constantly working," and, when the tour ended, the two went their separate ways.
They wrote their first song together while backstage at a Taylor Swift concert
A year after they first met, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes bumped into each other once again — backstage at a Taylor Swift concert of all places. While the pop star was busy making music history onstage, the two of them were creating something special behind-the-scenes. "That was the first time we had ever really spent more than a few minutes talking to each other," Cabello admitted to Rolling Stone, and it was during their conversation that they wrote their first single together, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." "We were just backstage hanging out," Mendes explained. "I pulled out my guitar and we were just messing around, not really thinking about writing a song."
Shortly after making a music video together, the two found their track on the Billboard Top 100 chart. The hit helped catapult both of their music careers, but that wasn't the only amazing thing about it. As Mendes told Rolling Stone, "I am very lucky that we wrote the song because I also got a really good friendship out of that" — a friendship that would soon morph into something much more.
It took some convincing to get Camila Cabello to be part of their single Señorita
Camila Cabello puts her all into performing "Señorita" today, but, surprisingly, it took a lot of persuading to get her to ever perform it in the first place. In fact, Shawn Mendes spent 10 months trying to talk her into recording the song with him. "I didn't want to do it," she admitted to Elle. "And then a few months later, I couldn't get the song out of my head."
Eight more months after that, the two finally had the time to hit the studio together, and everybody seemed to be excited to see them perform a duet once again. "I think this is probably the most anticipation I've ever had to release a song," Cabello told V Magazine just before the song debuted in 2019. "Señorita" became even more successful than the duo's previous hit, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." It won a People's Choice Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, and an American Music Award, and the song was even nominated for a Grammy.
That year, it was their spicy performance of the single at the American Music Awards that had people speculating there was something more between them. Heck, even Taylor Swift was seen blushing in the crowd.
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes kept their true feelings hidden from each other for years
It turns out, Shawn Mendes fell for Camila Cabello the moment he met her back in 2014. However, it took him all the way until 2019 to do something about it. "It takes a lot of courage to tell the woman you love that you love her," he explained to Access. Even though he was a famous musician, he was still just a teenager scared of being rejected.
However, over the course of those five years, people began questioning where their relationship really stood. During a joint interview on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in 2015, as the two were cozying up on the couch, they were asked if they were dating. Though they weren't at the time, Mendes revealed that he had made a few moves on her that she never responded to. "I remember backstage after our interview, I was like, 'Why did you say that? 'Cause you know that I like you,'" Cabello later admitted. Even still, it took them another four years to make it official.
Camila Cabello is the inspiration behind every single one of Shawn Mendes' love songs
Ever since Shawn Mendes stepped onto the music scene, he's been known for his incredible love songs. Yet, what may make them even more special — if that's even possible — is knowing that every single one has been about Camila Cabello (even long before the two started dating!). While working on his very first studio album, "I was thinking about her all the time," he admitted on SiriusXM.
It wasn't until they became official in 2019 that Mendes admitted all this to her face. "I just assumed that she had to know all these songs were about her," he explained during an interview with "On Air with Ryan Seacrest." When she never asked him about it, he had thought she wasn't interested in him. Today, he knows the real reason why he never heard from her. "Obviously, she had no idea," he admitted.
Camila Cabello was super nervous before their first date
Before heading out on their very first date in San Francisco, Camila Cabello was freaking out. "I was so nervous," she admitted on an episode of "Carpool Karaoke." The singer knew exactly what she needed to do to calm her nerves, too. "I took two tequila shots and sang 'Defying Gravity' in the shower over and over," she said, and, in the end, it didn't seem as though their date went all that badly.
During one of her shows a couple months later, Cabello revealed to the crowd that the two shared their first kiss that same day, a fan told Entertainment Tonight. At a meet and greet the very next month, Mendes announced that they were dating — and both of their fan bases instantly began freaking out. (Don't deny that you did, too.)
The two became official on the Fourth of July in 2019 and have been going strong ever since.
Shawn Mendes' parents love Camila Cabello
Shawn Mendes isn't the only one who's head over heels for Camila Cabello. His parents are huge fans of his girlfriend as well. In fact, his father already considers her a part of the family. Whenever Mendes is with her, "he would always bug me and be like, 'How's my daughter-in-law doing?'" the musician admitted during an interview on the "Zach Sang Show."
Even before the two started dating, Mendes would often go to his parents for relationship advice. Though he's usually away on the road now, he's always been extremely close with his family — so close, in fact, that he even has a matching tattoo with his mother. Clearly, their opinion of his girlfriend is important to him, and, luckily, they seem to think she's the one for him, too. "Your parents don't know, but when you know, you know," Mendes said in the interview. "But I definitely went to them a lot about it," so they obviously know, too. You know?
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello have a puppy together named Tarzan
In 2020, these two musicians made the ultimate commitment to one another. They adopted a puppy together. "It's like having a baby," Shawn Mendes even admitted to Entertainment Tonight. "It's like having a child," and anybody who has had a puppy (or a child) definitely understands what it's like.
The two spent quarantine in 2020 training their golden retriever named Tarzan, and it sounds like this little guy has certainly kept them busy — so busy that they even enlisted the help of the famous dog whisperer Cesar Milan to help them. Just like their musical careers, "we're very strict on all the things we have to do," Mendes told People. "Then when he nips at people we're like, 'We're the worst dog parents in the whole world!'" Yet, we're sure Tarzan would definitely disagree.
While becoming pet parents has been a big deal, doing it alongside Camila Cabello may be the best part. "She's, like, so good at taking care of the puppy," Mendes said on the Zach Sang Show, adding, "She, like, knows how to, like, speak puppy language."
The way these two kiss has divided the Internet
When the paparazzi first caught Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello kissing on camera, everyone in the world seemed to have an opinion on it. "We saw on, like, Twitter and stuff, you guys saying stuff about the way we were kissing and how it looks weird," Mendes shared in an Instagram video, so, on social media, these two were set on proving everyone wrong — or so we thought. In the viral video, the two lock lips and laugh as they act out the sloppiest kiss the world has ever seen. Some fans thought it was funny, but others ended up feeling extremely offended. Some even messaged Mendes directly, asking him to remove it altogether from the Internet.
Though not everybody was a fan of the video, Mendes' nan was. "She framed the photo from that video, put it in a little 'Happy New Year's' thing, and sent it to me," he told Dax Shepard on the podcast "Armchair Expert." However, he's still not sure she has seen the entire video. "I don't even think she knew what the photo was from," he added.
Camila Cabello is Shawn Mendes' first love
Falling in love is a life-changing experience for anybody, but it was an even bigger deal for Shawn Mendes. He had never been in love with anyone before Camila Cabello. "A lot happens when you fall in love for the first time," he later told Apple Music. "Because you really feel this support, this grounded, like, 'Hey, if everything goes away, I'm going to be okay.'"
After finding comfort with Cabello, striving to be successful was no longer his top priority. In fact, falling in love caused him to reevaluate his love for the industry altogether. "I might as well be doing this for the right reasons and really, really, really enjoying it," he explained. "Otherwise, I'd just rather watch movies with [Camila] all day." Luckily for all of his fans, he really, really, really enjoys performing and has released even more music since settling down with Cabello.
It isn't all sunshine and rainbows in their relationship
While Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello appear to have a picture-perfect romance, that actually isn't always the case. "We definitely fight," Mendes admitted on SiriusXM. Though, luckily, it's never been about anything too serious. In fact, many of their arguments are due to their high levels of stress, which all of us can easily relate to (even if we're not superstars).
Between the two of them, it seems as though Cabello is the calm one when it comes to an argument. "She'll text me whenever I'm just being kind of bitey with her, and she'll be like, 'It's okay. I'll love you no matter what. I love you no matter what,'" Mendes explained. "And it's like, that's real strength and patience and love," and, after all, at the end of every argument, someone always has to give in. "It takes all of my might in the entire world, but I have to admit that I'm wrong," Mendes said. You know what they say: happy wife, happy life!
The way these two write songs has had to change since they got together
When pop stars sing about their love stories and breakups, we usually have no idea who they're talking about. However, when the world knows exactly who they're dating, that changes things. "That is such a hard part of all of this," Camila Cabello admitted during an interview on "Lorraine."
Ever since Cabello became official with Shawn Mendes in 2019, she's had to completely change the way she approaches songwriting. While she'd love to express her true emotions through music, sometimes she realizes that's not the right thing to do anymore. "Sometimes you do, kind of, have to sacrifice stuff for the other person's emotions," she said. "Sometimes I'm like, 'I won't put that line in there.'"
Though Mendes has said there's no topic that's off-limits when it comes to writing his own music, he has found himself in some difficult situations since they began dating as well. "The truth about being celebrities and being in a relationship is that it's super tricky," he admitted to Entertainment Tonight. However, we'd have to say that these two have always handled it pretty perfectly.
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes try to keep their relationship as private as possible
Today, everybody knows that Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes are an item. However, these two don't want anyone knowing much more about their relationship than that. "As much as I love my fans, and as much as I love people, I like to live my life as normally as possible," Cabello told Elle, and, just like any other normal person, she's not into sharing a whole lot of information about her relationship.
When it comes down to it, what Cabello and Mendes have together is something that exists only between the two of them. "That's why I'm so tight-lipped about it," she said. "Because I want to protect it." So, while we're all busy gushing over the two of them, they'll be busy falling in love behind closed doors. "I want to always feel like my love is between me and that person," Cabello added. "And never belonging to anyone else."
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes are endgame
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes have been inseparable ever since they got together in 2019. So, when Cabello was seen rocking a diamond ring on her left hand in August 2021, everybody seemed to be excited to hear they were engaged. Unfortunately, the pop star shut down those rumors pretty fast on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." "I swear to God I don't know what hand the engagement ring goes on, so sometimes I'll just put it on my ring finger," she explained.
Even so, Mendes has made it clear to everyone that these two are endgame. "I know we're really young, so I don't want to jump, like, insanely fast," he told Entertainment Tonight. "But I think when you find your person, you feel and you know that you found your person." Please excuse us as our hearts explode from our chests.