Keeping it low-key. Camila Cabello opened up about her private romance with Shawn Mendes for the first time — well, sort of.
“I don’t know; people can say whatever they want,” the “Liar” singer, 22, told Elle in her October 2019 cover story when asked whether she thinks the secrecy created more buzz. “They can speculate, but at the same time, we are going to live our own lives, enjoy it, and fall for each other like nobody is watching. That is how I want to live. I never want to open the door for people to feel like they are involved. Like I said, I want it to be mine and [his]. That’s why I’m so tight-lipped about it: because I want to protect it.”
Cabello was less cryptic, however, while discussing her working relationship with Mendes, 21.
“I mean, I love him. We have always connected; we have the best time together,” she told the magazine. “Shawn texted me the idea for the chorus for [our song] ’Señorita.’ He was like, ‘Hey, what if we work on this and do it together?’ I was on the Taylor Swift tour and hadn’t been in the studio for a while. I didn’t want to do it, and then a few months later, I couldn’t get the song out of my head.”
Eventually, the former Fifth Harmony member accepted the “In My Blood” crooner’s offer, but she was almost too late.
“He was like, ‘I don’t want to do it anymore,’” Cabello recalled. “It went back and forth for, like, eight months. Then we finally went into the studio and reworked it so we both felt good about it, without any pressure. I love working with him so much.”
The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” collaborators sparked dating rumors in June when they released their steamy “Señorita” music video, which premiered just a few days before news broke of Cabello’s breakup from her boyfriend of more than a year, dating coach Matthew Hussey.
Mendes and Cabello were spotted getting cozy for the first time while attending a 4th of July party. They have since been nearly inseparable, with the X Factor alum attending several of her beau’s tour stops. The couple also performed together at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards in August.
“Shawn and Camila started off as just friends, which they have been for years, but the more time they spent together, the more they started having feelings for each other,” a source previously told Us Weekly exclusively. “It quickly turned into a fun, lighthearted summer fling-type situation, but now it’s developing into something more serious.”
