Sabrina Carpenter, Shawn Mendes, and Camila Cabello Are Taking Their (Alleged) Love Triangle to the VMAs Stage

To recap: Mendes and Cabello were in a long-term, very serious, relationship from 2019 to 2021, and their split seemed to be amicable. The whole, “we were friends before, gonna stay friends after” type thing. Then, about a year and a half after announcing the breakup, they were spotted seemingly hooking up at Coachella in April 2023. In between (early 2023) Mendes and Carpenter were spotted out and about together, though they never directly addressed or confirmed a relationship. This was after Carpenter was involved in a love triangle with Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Basset and before her current on-off relationship with Barry Keoghan.

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And all this might have seemed like the past—Carpenter and Mendes are both in new relationships, and Cabello seemed very cool with the second break-up talking about it on a podcast; they’re friends—if all three artists didn’t recently (seemingly) address the situation on their latest albums. Here are all the theories. (Okay, that’s not entirely true; Mendes doesn’t have any lyrics about being pulled between two girls, but that’s only because his album Shawn doesn’t drop until October, and if he’s smart and wants press, he’ll get into it then.)

Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter definitely seem to be hinting at a rivalry. Here are Carpenter’s lyrics, from “Taste:” “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you.” and from “Coincidence:” “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.”

Cabello only has one song about the sitch, called “June Gloom:” “She’s cool, I heard/ Won’t act surprised, I saw the pictures/ We’re a house fire, for sure/ Hope it’ll burn out, but it just gets bigger…/ If she’s so amazing, why are you on this side of town? If you like her so much, what are you here trying to find out?”

Aaaaaand Cabello posted a TikTok of herself lip sync-ing those exact lines just after the “Taste” video dropped.