Charlie Puth’s romance with Selena Gomez may have been brief, but it had a lasting impression.
“It’s about a particular moment in my life, when someone very close to me wanted the attention of somebody else,” Puth told Billboard in their new cover story published on Thursday, February 1, about his duet with Gomez, “We Don’t Talk Anymore.”
“When I found that out and we ended it, I might have done some shady things too, and she might have asked me, ‘How long has this been going on?'” the 26-year-old singer continued. “I don’t kiss and tell, but the only way a song like that can come across as real is if there’s something else going on behind the scenes. And that’s what was happening. Very short-lived, very small, but very impactful. And it really messed me up. I’m trying to put this the best way possible: It wasn’t like I was the only person on her mind. And I think I knew that going in — what I was getting myself into.”
The “One Call Away” singer and Disney alum, 25, had a brief fling in March 2016. “It’s not serious, but she’s super into him,” an insider told Us Weekly about their relationship at the time.
Despite going through a rough patch, Puth has no problem performing his duet with Gomez. “You gather up a bunch of emotion with the life shovel, throw it in the life bucket, mix it up. And she evoked such good emotion on that song, it was a pleasure working with her. That’s why I’m always happy to sing it, even though it came from a dark point in my life,” he told the magazine.
While Puth was briefly linked to Bella Thorne in December 2016, Gomez reunited with on-again, off-again boyfriend Justin Bieber this past November. Us Weekly broke the news of their reunion just days after her split with The Weeknd. “Selena and The Weeknd just fizzled and ended amicably — it wasn’t dramatic and it wasn’t about Justin. But Selena always had feelings for Justin,” a source told Us at the time. “Her friends want her to be cautious because she has been in such a good place post-surgery.” As previously reported, Gomez underwent a kidney transplant earlier this year due to complications with lupus, the autoimmune disease she was diagnosed with in 2013.
The couple were most recently spotted together on Wednesday, January 31. After Gomez watched Bieber’s hockey game, the duo attended a Hillsong Church service together.
