Shawn Mendes Says He and Camila Cabello ‘Haven’t Been the Closest’ as She Takes Social Media Break

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello ended their relationship on amicable terms, but they haven’t always remained incredibly close.

“I just think that we really know each other,” Mendes, 26, said of their friendship during a Thursday, November 14, interview on Apple Music 1. “We haven’t been the closest over the last couple of years, but I think we really know each other.”

He added, “We’ve spent a lot of time together. We really know each other’s hearts. So even when all of the sound and all the noise is happening, we can see through each other’s both pretty easily, and it’s just nice to have that.”

Mendes and Cabello, 27, dated from 2019 to 2021 after years of friendship. Two years after the pair broke up, they sparked reconciliation rumors at Coachella in April 2023.

The reunion was short-lived, however, as a source confirmed to Us Weekly in June 2023 that Mendes and Cabello had split again.

Since then, Mendes has been back in the recording studio working on his vulnerable self-titled record, which will be released on Friday, November 15.

“The truth about being an artist, for me at least, what it feels like is I have one job and it’s to express my truth. It’s my responsibility,” he told Apple DJ Zane Lowe on Thursday. “If people are connecting with the songs and it’s coming from a place that isn’t true, they’re getting a distorted image and I don’t want that. I want people to connect with something that is coming from me.”

Mendes further explained that he wants fans to be able to “relate to a human” through his music.

“If you want to relate to me, I’m going to have you relate to the truth about me, not some sort of projected idea of what I want you to think about me,” he said. “And it’s my one job, my one responsibility is to [love] myself and I would not make art at this point otherwise.”

Mendes further stated, “Everything that I write and I create has to be within that truth. I think the hard part about the society we live in is no one has space for the grey. It’s black or white. No one has space for the nuances and the complexities of everything in between. No one has space for the fact that we are all just trying to figure things out.”

As her ex gears up for his new album to drop, Cabello announced that she’s planning to take a brief hiatus from social media.

“A writer must have stories living them right now,” she wrote via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, November 13. “Taking some cute little internet breaks. Love you my babies.”

Shawn drops on Friday, November 15.