It’s official — after dating for more than two years, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello called it quits in November 2021 when they each issued a statement on their Instagram stories. For Shamila shippers, the news seemingly came out of left field as the pair seemed happier than ever and even dressed in a matching couples costume for Halloween. So, you may be wondering why Shawn and Camila broke up to begin with. Ahead, find everything we know so far about the couple’s decision to break it off.
Working through it. After calling it quits in the fall of 2021, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello have gradually revealed their breakup.
After they both served as opening acts for Austin Mahone’s tour in 2014, the “Stitches” singer and the former Fifth Harmony member first became friends. They worked together on the song “I Know What You Did Last Summer” in 2017, and when they dropped their duet “Seorita” in 2019, it led to romance rumors.
Following his breakup with Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes is figuring out how to rely on a bigger network of people.
According to sources, Shawn and Camila’s split was allegedly due to their hectic work schedules. The couple reportedly grew close during the COVID-19 shutdown, once they resumed their normal work routine, their relationship became “different.” A source told People, “They had this intense relationship last year and spent months together during the lockdown in Miami. They both seemed very happy and looked like they enjoyed having a break from working.” The source added, “Things are different now, though. It’s more back to normal life. They have careers that are taking them in different directions. They went from spending every day together to now not really spending any time together.”
Shawn and Camila started out as friends in 2015 when they were both on tour together and wrote their first duet, “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Since then, they have both written music about each other on their respective albums and evolved from best friends to romantic partners.
After being photographed holding hands in the water in Miami’s ocean in July 2019, the couple appeared to reveal that they were more than just buddies.
Later that month, a source revealed to Us Weekly in an exclusive interview that despite parting ways, the musicians “still have a ton of love and respect for one other.”
The pair stayed together until the coronavirus epidemic more than a year later, and at that time they also adopted a puppy. The following year, though, things between the two cooled off.
In a joint statement released in November 2021, the lifelong friends announced their separation and stated that their “love for one another as humans is stronger than ever.”
In November 2020, Camila penned a heartfelt caption about her relationship with Shawn on Instagram. “I’ve learned a lot about love with this guy,” the “Don’t Go Yet” singer wrote. “It’s not just the happy blissful moments you see in pictures and videos. 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 continued. “It’s not as simple as it looks in pictures sometimes. Sometimes, it’s messy and uncomfortable and ugly lol. But there’s nothing like the pull, the FORCE that is love, to be the light in the darkness—to be the gravitational pull that gives you the relentless strength to be braver, wiser, and better than you were yesterday”
When the couple was “being questioned on how serious they were and whether or not they were going to get engaged,” the insider claimed that the focus “got unbearable” for the couple.
In the months that followed, both the “Summer of Love” singer and the former X Factor competitor released songs that seemed to address the breakup. Neither artist, however, publicly addressed their breakup until March 2022.
Shawn and Camila first announced their split via Instagram on November 17, 2021. ““Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship but our love for one another as humans is stronger than ever,” Shawn and Camila wrote in their statements. “We started our relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends.”
After the former couple posted their joint statements on Instagram, a source told E! News that Shawn had “initiated the conversation” with Camila about the stance of their relationship. The source also shared that although Camila was “very upset over the split,” it “was not a bad breakup at all.”
“The relationship was getting stale and complacent and they decided they are better off being friends,” the source told the outlet.
A different source explained to Entertainment Tonight that their decision to split was mutual. “They realized they are in totally different places in their lives at this point, and it was time to end things,” the source told ET. “They’re both sad about the split, but doing their best to take care of themselves, stay busy, and surround themselves by loved ones.”
A few months after the couple was quarantined together in Miami during the Coronavirus pandemic, a source told InTouch Weekly that the couple took a break for a while. “The [original plan] was that Camila would go back to Los Angeles with him. But they decided they needed to take a break from each other,” the source told the outlet at the time. “Despite their busy careers, they’ve spent much of the past year together. They were in love and were best friends — they still are… The past year was a whirlwind for them and they supported each other so much. Nothing really went bad between them, they just realized they need some time apart.”
Shortly after InTouch’s reports were released, Page Six broke the news that Camila was crying on a lunch date with Shawn in September 2021. The reason she cried was unknown, but there’s a chance it could have related to the fate of their romance. The public’s opinions and media coverage surrounding their relationship has also seemingly taken a toll on the former couple, according to Camila.
She told Glamour that she and Shawn actively tried to avoid social media when it came to their relationship, but that it “inevitably seeps in.” “When stuff that’s negative is out there, it’s going to get to you,” she told the outlet. “So yeah, that’s very, very challenging. I feel like it’s another thing therapy has been really helpful for.”
Shawn took to Instagram to announce he was dropping a new song, titled “It’ll Be Okay,” on December 1, 2021. It’s full of heartfelt lyrics that relate back to his romance with Camila, painting the scene of their downfall and how they tried to make things work. There are even lyrics that allude to their plans of potentially getting married, but now that the couple has split, their future has “faded to black.” This marks the first song Shawn released since the breakup, and while he hasn’t explicitly commented on their split, “It’ll Be Okay” definitely provided more insight into what happened between him and Camila.
Since then, Camila has commented on what led to their decision to break up. In a March 2022 interview with about her new song, “Bam Bam” featuring Ed Sheeran, the Fifth Harmony alumna reflected on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend.
“My priorities have fluctuated and my focus has changed throughout my life,” she started. “Those years that we were dating, I don’t even feel like, even while I was writing this album, and even still now, I guess, my focus is really on, how can I be a well-rounded person?” She went on to say that her priorities shifted because of their relationship ending and that she created more intimate bonds with her album collaborators.
