Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello’s Relationship Timeline May Include A Fresh Start

Shawmila shippers had their hearts broken in late 2021 when Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes announced their split. The “Señorita” singers decided to put an end to their romantic relationship after more than two years of dating, promising fans in twin statements on Instagram that they would remain best friends. Almost two years later, it’s clear they are still very close — and the burning question now is, just how close?

The musicians have given fans hope that they’ve rekindled their relationship. At Coachella on April 15, the two were seen spending time together and getting affectionate. A video posted on Twitter by Pop Base even appeared to show them kissing, indicating their love story might not be over yet. Meanwhile, on May 28, the pair were also spotted getting cozy at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium while attending Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour together. As PEOPLE notes, fan videos appeared to show Mendes with his arm around the “Havana” hitmaker, fuelling rumors of a reconciliation between the former couple.

Over the years, music has kept finding ways of pulling Mendes and Cabello back together. The artists and longtime friends sparked romance rumors in 2019 after the release of their sizzling second duet “Señorita” and its music video. In an interview with Clash, Cabello said that writing music with Mendes was “one of the most natural things in the world,” adding: “I think I’ve actually known him the longest out of anybody in the music industry ... it’s been really beautiful to kinda grow up together… It’s actually a really beautiful feeling to know that this person is always going to be in my life, we’re always going to love each other.”

Mendes later admitted in his documentary that every one of his chart-topping hits has been about her. “We were in New York and my song comes on the radio or something, and the fact comes up that it’s about her, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s about you.’ And I’m like, ‘Everything is about you. They’ve always been about you,’” he confessed. “And she’s like, ‘Oh, my God.’ She literally had no idea. This whole time I thought she, like, knew.”

So what happened leading up to their split and after it? Here’s everything we know about music’s Cinderella and her maybe-current Prince Charming.

2014: They Meet Through Work

Cabello and Mendes’ relationship was a long time in the making, with the two first meeting as teens when they were supporting acts on Austin Mahone’s 2014 tour. At the time, Cabello was a member of Fifth Harmony and Mendes was crafting his solo career, so their busy schedules didn’t offer much time to really get to know each other.

Cabello fondly recalled when they first started talking in 2019. “I remember I wanted to hang out with you, but you were always on the tour bus, just learning guitar,” Cabello told V Magazine in a joint interview with Mendes. He replied, “I didn’t talk to anybody. You were ... the only one of everybody on that tour who would say words to me.”

2015: They Reconnect

Their connection grew stronger in 2015 when they reunited backstage at a Taylor Swift concert and began spontaneously writing a song together that would become their snarling hit single “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” (Fifth Harmony joined Swift on stage in Santa Clara, California, on Aug. 14, 2015, so that may have been the fateful show.) Through Cabello and Mendes’ mutual passion for music, the singers spawned a close friendship that year “because we had the song together and we did a whole Jingle Ball tour together,” she said in Mendes’ 2020 Netflix documentary In Wonder.

November 2015: They Release Their Duet

Working on the song that became “I Know What You Did Last Summer” forged a strong bond between the two artists. “That was the first time we had ever really spent more than a few minutes talking to each other,” Cabello told Rolling Stone in 2015. “I’m very lucky that we wrote the song because I also got a really good friendship out of that.”

Reflecting on the songwriting process with Mendes in another interview with Rolling Stone in 2019, Cabello recalled having feelings for the “Wonder” singer right off the bat. “During ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ I really bonded with him as more than a friend,” she said. “I think he did, too, but we were both really young, and he was experiencing the pressures of his career. I don’t think we knew what to do with those feelings. It was this awkward thing where we both liked each other, but we weren’t together.” Speaking with The Sun, she added: “Definitely there were feelings, but I think we were just too young to know what to do with them.”

2015-2018: The Two Remain Friends

Cabello and Mendes remained close friends and could often be seen online congratulating one another on their latest achievements, ranging from Cabello’s first solo single (“Crying in the Club”) to Mendes appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone.

But whenever either artist was pressed on whether they were in a friendship or a relationship, the response was always the same. “We’re just really close friends,” Mendes told People in 2016. “She is one of those people who is just very easy to connect with and still, to this day, is one of my greatest friends. You find that instant connection with people, and she’s one of them.”

Mendes did, however, reveal that he would love to continue to work with Cabello on new music in the future, foreshadowing their next collaboration three years later. “She’s a f*cking great writer,” he said. “Even if we just wrote for other people, I would be happy to do that because she’s such a thrill to write with and work with.”

February 2019: They Hang At Grammys

The pair reunited at the 2019 Grammy Awards, where both artists were nominated and performed their hits “In My Blood” and “Havana.” To commemorate the event, Cabello posted a collection of images on Instagram of the duo smiling and hugging, writing: “so proud of this amazing human !!!!!! seems like yesterday we were just kids singing Ed Sheeran songs in the dressing room, now we’re kids trying not to throw up cause we’re at the Grammys!!!! i love you forever ❤️”

June 2019: They Release “Señorita”

Mendes and Cabello once again began to stir up romance rumors shortly after the release of their second duet, titled “Señorita.” The song not only featured sensual lyrics about falling in love with someone, but its steamy music video saw them get up close and personal as a lovestruck motorcycle rider and waitress. After witnessing their onscreen chemistry, fans began to speculate about whether or not they were more than just friends, especially given that Cabello broke up with her then-boyfriend Matthew Hussey a few days after the song’s release.

July 2019: Dating Rumors Intensify

They added extra fuel to the relationship fire when they were pictured heading out for brunch together in West Hollywood and smooching in San Francisco. According to Cabello, working on new music with Mendes brought back an onslaught of residual feelings that had lingered for Mendes since their very first collaboration. “An energy was there from the beginning, but after [‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’], we didn’t spend as much time together. Our paths just didn’t cross in that way romantically until we started hanging out again and writing,” she said via Rolling Stone. “For me, it just brought it back.”

August 2019: Their MTV VMAs Duet

At the height of their “are-they-dating-or-not” phase in August 2019, Cabello and Mendes all but confirmed the rumors with a salacious performance of “Señorita” at the 2019 Video Music Awards. They coquettishly skirted around one another and paused for multiple near-kisses before they would delve back into the song. Despite their performances, Cabello told Elle in 2019 that she wasn’t too concerned with spelling out whether or not they were in a relationship to the outside world. “I don’t know; people can say whatever they want to say. 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,” she said. “That is how I want to live. I never want to open the door for people to feel like they are involved. ... That’s why I’m so tight-lipped about it: because I want to protect it.”

September 2019: They Confirm They’re Dating

In September 2019, Mendes confirmed that he was in a relationship while chatting with fans before his concert in Connecticut. The topic came up when a fan asked if he had recently been in love, a callback to a 2017 Clash interview in which he said he’d never been in love before. While he didn’t drop Cabello’s name, he gracefully revealed he was seeing someone: “Honestly, I wanna say I wanna talk to you guys about this stuff, but it’s not just me in the relationship. There’s another person involved, and I can’t say things that I feel. It’s not just me deciding you know?” Later that month, however, Cabello and Mendes poked fun at trolls who said they “kiss like fish” by recording an Instagram video of the couple egregiously licking each other’s faces and laughing.

By October 2019, Mendes was ready to share a few more details about their relationship. He told a crowd of fans in Hindmarsh, Australia, that they hadn’t been “dating for that long” and that they had only gotten together and started “dating since July 4 officially” according to People.

Opening up about their relationship in an interview with The Sun, Cabello called it “more scary” to date a longtime friend like Mendes because “you have more to lose” than if you’re dating someone new. “I think when you fall in love with somebody you’ve known for a long time, there’s more at stake,” she said. “But it also feels more special because it feels like the love story you see in the movies of people who have known each other for a long time but been too stupid to realize it or say it and then it happens — and that’s beautiful too.”

March 2020: They Socially Distance Together

Chatting with Jimmy Fallon in October 2020, Mendes revealed that he was staying in Miami with Cabello, which he had similarly done at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in March. “This is home,” he said. He also called having a daily routine a “really nice” experience. “At first when I got here it was like the beginning of the album process and I was in full panic state. I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna make music,’” he shared. “But a week goes by and you start cooking eggs in the morning. You start doing laundry and taking dogs for walks. You have your coffee mug, you use the same one every day, and it just becomes really nice. Which sounds so normal for everyone else, but it’s abnormal for me.”

The couple opened up about their daily life together during their Global Citizen: Together At Home performance in March 2020. They gave a few recommendations for activities to do to pass the time, including re-watching the entire Harry Potter film series. “I think everybody should start Harry Potter from top to end,” Mendes said per Glamour. “That’s the way to go.”

September 2020: Cabello Congratulates Mendes On His New Album

On Sept. 30, 2020, Mendes released the first teasers online for his upcoming fourth studio album Wonder and among his first supporters online was Cabello herself. “The world could use some magic, beauty, and Wonder always, but especially right now,” she wrote on Instagram. “@shawnmendes what a gorgeous gift to the world. He’s crafted this album with every last bit of his soul, his spirit, and his essence with the purest of intentions. My love, I’m so proud of the person you are and I’m so excited for people to see and hear your heart. ❤️”

October 2020: “I Want To Be Strong In This Relationship”

In the lead up to the release of Wonder, Mendes revealed in an interview with Radio.com that the lyrics to his upcoming title track “Wonder” were heavily inspired by his newfound struggle to share his insecurities while in a relationship. “I thought that I was a pretty open, emotional, guy until I started being in a relationship with someone that I really, truly love and, realizing that ‘Oh no, I really have this big ego,’” he revealed. “I don’t want to show her that I’m hurting and I don’t want to show her that that offended me. I want to be the man, and I want to be strong in this relationship.”

It was that realization that his cavalier behavior was actually detrimental to their relationship that changed his perspective and made him see that “real strength does lie inside of being emotional and being vulnerable.” A few weeks later, Mends told SiriusXM that Cabello should be credited “all over” his album Wonder because she was his biggest supporter during the creation of the album. “There was nobody during the time that was giving me more advice and encouragement to just stick to the way I felt about the music that I wanted to make, you know?”

November 2020: They Adopt A Dog

The couple adopted a golden retriever that they named Tarzan. The puppy was the newest addition of the Cabello-Mendes pet family, which included Mendes’ black German Shepherd named Thunder and Cabello’s Chihuahua Eugene and Shih Tzu Leo. Tarzan got his very own Instagram (@tarzandadog) run by the couple showing his daily life, including getting hugs from Mendes and FaceTiming with Cabello.

November 2020: Her Body Positivity Impacts His Mental Health

During this time period, the couple addressed their mental health. Speaking with GQ in November 2020, Mendes revealed that Cabello’s body positivity made him come to the realization that “taking that extra few hours of sleep, instead of waking up to pump iron, is a better choice sometimes.” He added: “It really changed my view of [my body]. It really changed my life.”

A year later, in an interview with Bustle in August 2021, Cabello recalled the experience of watching Mendes make a positive change in his mental health. “[He] would tell me like, ‘Dang, I have these kinds of thoughts or whatever.’ I think that him talking about it has been a really big step in transforming that relationship with his body,” she remembered. “I certainly feel obsessive, [like] I need to go to the gym, I need to do this, I need to lose weight quickly. I’ve felt like that. That’s the societal voice in your head.”

November 2020: She Pens A Post About Their Relationship

The “Havana” singer posted a sweet photo of her and Mendes sharing a kiss with a heartfelt caption about the beauty and complexities of love that she’s come to learn while dating Mendes. She opened the caption acknowledging that a relationship is “not just the happy, blissful moments you see in pictures and videos” but can bring its own unique set of challenges too. “When you’re in a relationship with someone, it feels like they are this mirror reflecting yourself back to you — I constantly have to confront my fears, my anxieties, my insecurities, my patterns of thinking, my beliefs about life and about myself,” she revealed. “It’s not as simple as it looks in pictures sometimes. sometimes, it’s messy and uncomfortable and ugly lol.”

However, she continued that there’s nothing comparable to the “force that is love” that she feels when she’s around Mendes; it’s one that gives her “relentless strength to be braver, wiser, and better” than in the past. “To be in love means to choose that person over and over again, to go through the messy stuff with. And that’s way more beautiful and raw and real than perfection,” she added. “I’m all for being vulnerable on social media because I think only the neatness and perfection of life is shown on here; and that can make us all feel extra lonely and weird! So raise your glass to the messiness and weirdness of being human and the miracle.”

December 2020: They Release A Christmas Song

On Dec. 7, Mendes and Cabello released a cover of “The Christmas Song” together. The song’s wholesome, home movie-inspired music video allowed fans to take a glimpse into the holiday season with the couple as they wore Christmas sweaters, hung up lights, decorated a tree, and sang together with their family, friends, and pets in Miami.

That same month, Mendes took Cabello back home to spend the holidays with his family in Canada. “I just know that she is [my person],” Mendes said per People. “I think that your person really just has to be your best friend, and she has been that for so many years now. She is so unapologetically diving into love, and she really taught me what it is to be vulnerable and honest and true in a relationship ... She’s really so brave and courageous in love. I’m constantly learning from her.”

June 2021: Mendes Reveals Not Wanting To Be “Evil” Around Her

While speaking on Justin Baldoni’s Man Enough podcast, Mendes brought up a pivotal moment that caused him to reflect on the “darkness” inside of him and his inherent fear of being a bad person. It happened when the “Stitches” singer raised his voice at Cabello during an argument and she called him out on it. “She was like, ‘I don’t like it when you raise your voice. Why did you raise your voice?’ And I got so defensive,” he said. “And I felt her shrink, and I felt me grow, and I was like, ‘Oh god, this is the worst.’ I’m so terrified of being evil. I’m so scared to be bad. I don’t want to be bad.” The two ended up remedying their situation by speaking openly and honestly with one another. “I made it about my evil and my fear, and she comforted me,” he shared. “And then it took me like 20 minutes of us separately reading our books to be able to come back to her and be like, ‘God, that was a whole thing and I’m really sorry.’”

July 2021: They Celebrate Their 2-Year Anniversary

To properly celebrate the major milestone, the couple went on a relaxing holiday to the Caribbean Islands, and both shared adorable Instagram posts to commemorate their trip. Mendes’ short but sweet post featured an image of him and Cabello kissing by the beach with the caption: “happy 2 years my baby.” Cabello’s collage of photos from their vacation included the couple sharing a slice of watermelon, making silly faces, and smiling at one another. “happy anniversary Kuko ❤️” she wrote. “here’s to more joy, more friendship, and more love ❤️”

September 2021: Mendes Cheers On Cabello At Her Cinderella Premiere

In September, 24-year-old Cabello made her acting debut as the star of Amazon Studios’ rendition of the classic fairytale Cinderella. “Congratulations my love, I’m so proud of you,” Mendes wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of them kissing on a balcony. “I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as you did to show up every day and be truly professional, kind and authentic. I admire you so much. Such a beautiful movie with a beautiful message 🤍 te amo mi vida.”

In addition to walking the red carpet together at the film’s premiere in Miami, the singers accompanied each other at this year’s Met Gala in New York. Later that month, Mendes took a lie detector test for a video with Vanity Fair, which revealed some juicy info about his past relationship with Hailey Bieber and his true feelings about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.

But of course, Mendes also dished some details about his relationship. “In a recent interview, you said that your girlfriend thinks you’re incapable of lying,” the interviewer said, referring to a statement Mendes made on the Man Enough podcast in June. “Does that mean you’re actually really good at lying?” In response, the 23-year-old confirmed that he’s “pretty bad at lying,” but that doesn’t mean that he’s never bent the truth. “I definitely have lied,” he admitted, confirming that he’s lied to his Cabello before.

October 2021: They Open Up About Mental Health

In an interview with Glamour, Cabello opened up about how Mendes supports her through her anxiety. “I have this pattern of eating a lot when I’m anxious or uncomfortable,” she told the magazine, explaining that it’s a “comfort thing” that ultimately ends up making her sick. “At the VMAs party, I was like, ‘I’m doing it.’ And he was like, ‘It’s okay. You’re doing it. That’s okay. Let’s just take a breath and not do that.’ It’s really good for me to be able to talk about my patterns with someone.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the former Fifth Harmony star said that their relationship works because “for better, for worse, we’re very transparent with each other.” “I think that’s why we can trust each other so much, because it’s a very 3D human relationship,” she said. “I’ll be venting or ranting about something, and he’ll be like, ‘Have you talked to X about it?’ And I’ll be like, ‘No. I’ve got to do a session.’ And he’ll do the same thing to me.”

Cabello went on to explain that being honest with each other about when they’re struggling “helps a lot,” and Mendes agreed. “Camila and I give each other an extreme amount of patience and understanding,” he added. “I think the truth is that when you’re struggling with mental health, it turns you sometimes into the version of yourself that you don’t like to be — and kind of loving and accepting your person through that, and being there for them through that, is life-changing. We give each other so much space and understanding and patience.”

At the very end of the month, Shawn and Camila proved they were still going strong when they shared photos on their respective Instagram feeds of their matching Día de los Muertos costumes.

November 2021: They Break Up

In mid-November, the couple announced their split after more than two years together with twin statements on their Instagram Stories. “Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship, but our love for each other as humans is stronger than ever,” the statement read. “We started our relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends. We so appreciate your support from the beginning and moving forward. Camila and Shawn.”

April 2023: They Reunite At Coachella

Almost a year-and-a-half after their breakup, Cabello and Mendes looked like a couple again. The two were spotted together at Coachella on April 15, and they were even kissing in a video tweeted by Pop Base. So far, the couple hasn’t confirmed or commented on speculation that they’ve reunited romantically. (Bustle reached out to a rep for Cabello but did not hear back at the time of publishing.) If it is indeed a fresh start for the two, Shawmila fans are ready.