Shawn Mendes And Camila Cabello: From The Breakup To Their Coachella Reunion

Fans of Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendes thought things would never be the same after the couple announced their breakup in November 2021. The former Fifth Harmony member and the Vine sensation had reigned supreme as pop music's biggest power couple for two years when they called it quits. In posts on their Instagram Stories, the exes assured fans that there was no animosity at all between the two of them; quite the contrary, in fact. "We started [our] relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends," they wrote.

Cabello and Mendes began building their friendship back in 2015 when they collaborated on the song "I Know What You Did Last Summer." By the time they worked together again on the 2019 track "Señorita," it was becoming clear that their platonic affection for each other had evolved into something more. After weeks of public canoodling, Cabello confirmed that they were a couple. In an August 2019 Instagram post, she wished Mendes a happy 21st birthday and declared her love for him.

In 2020, Mendes told Apple Music's Zane Lowe that he had quarantined with Cabello and her family; that's how serious the couple was getting. "It wouldn't surprise anyone if they just take a breather, enjoy the holidays then look to get back together down the line," a source told Us Weekly after their split. A 2023 Coachella encounter between the exes potentially proved this insider correct, but a lot happened before their surprise reunion.

On December 1, 2021, Shawn Mendes dropped a track titled "It'll Be Okay." It was clearly a breakup ballad, sung from the perspective of someone assuring a romantic partner (and himself) that he'll be just fine if they call time on their relationship. It includes an obvious reference to Mendes' post-split promise that he and Camila Cabello wouldn't stop caring for each other: "We don't have to stay / I will love you either way." Cabello let her ex know that she approved of his heartbreaking track by liking Mendes' Instagram post announcing its release.

Ahead of the new year, Mendes updated his fans on how he was doing. As it turns out, he wasn't totally okay. In an Instagram video, he revealed that his songwriting process involves isolating himself from other people while dipping into his emotional well. This might be an enjoyable experience when he's happy and in love, but the post-breakup result was a melancholy song; it even had some fans filming videos of themselves crying while listening to it. Mendes said that he was aware of these reaction videos but admitted that he wasn't watching them. "I'm having a little bit of a hard time with social media at the moment and my relationship with it," he explained. However, he went on to say, "I just feel so proud of that song and I feel so grateful that you guys are connecting with it."

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes had been broken up for a month when it was reported that the former was looking for a new love. In late December 2021, Cabello was spied shopping for pre-holiday supplies with an unidentified male companion in Brooklyn. An eyewitness also told Deuxmoi that they reportedly saw Cabello using the Raya dating app at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.

When she appeared on "The Drew Barrymore Show" in 2022, Cabello confirmed that she had tried using a dating app at some point. However, she ditched that modern method of looking for love after a day. "The first guy that DM'd me was like [an] aspiring singer-songwriter from Nashville," Cabello recalled. Because he was also involved in the music business, she realized that some of the app's users might not just be interested in making a love connection. "You don't know their intentions," she pointed out. Cabello told Barrymore that she had discovered a better way of meeting guys. "When you are just trying to make friends, you're gonna meet guys that are vetted by your friends, which is amazing," she said.

Cabello didn't spend her final days of 2021 waiting for someone special to slide into her DMs, either. In a December 26 post on her Instagram Story, the singer wrote, "Going on a lil social media detox till the new year!!!! Just wanna spend a little less time on my phone this week."

In November 2020, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello introduced their Instagram followers to their new fur baby — a fluffy golden retriever puppy. Cabello revealed that their pre-holiday present for themselves was bringing her some comfort as she waited to learn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. "During uncertain times like this we need a reminder that sweet miracle things like puppies exist in the world too, meet the new member of the pack: Tarzan!" she wrote. Her post included a video of Mendes cuddling Tarzan in a blanket while informing the pup that he was a very stinky boy.

When Mendes and Cabello broke up, their fans undoubtedly wondered who Tarzan would live with. He kept popping up on Cabello's Instagram page, and an insider told Hollywood Life that the dog was staying with her. However, Mendes reportedly viewed this arrangement as less than ideal. "Shawn just wants to see his dog and he would like to work out some sort of arrangement with Camila where they get to split custody of Tarzan," the source stated.

It's unclear if they ever hashed out such an arrangement, but in January 2022, TMZ shared video footage of Cabello and Mendes walking Tarzan together in Miami. The trio reunited in a park, and Tarzan appeared to be happily panting as he trotted ahead of his "divorced" parents.

In January 2022, Shawn Mendes delighted his fans by teasing some new music. He shared an Instagram video that showed him bopping his head along to an upbeat tune while chilling in a car. The video then cut to a shot of Mendes recording the same song in a studio. Weeks later, fans learned that the track was "When You're Gone," another breakup ballad that includes the lyrics, "I didn't know that loving you was the happiest I've ever been / So I'm just tryna hold on."

Cabello responded to Mendes' teaser video by commenting, "Ur crazy wildcat," bringing "High School Musical" fans back to another place and time — and reminding them of another pop power couple that didn't last. It was a reference to a line that Vanessa Hudgens delivers to Zac Efron in the 2008 Disney film "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." In one of their final shared scenes, Efron's character, Troy, climbs up in a tree to surprise his longtime love Gabriella (Hudgens) as she's leaving a college class. She reacts by saying, "You are so crazy, wildcat." So was Cabello's comment an inside joke? Or was it a sign that she was wistfully dreaming that she and Mendes would someday get their own happy ending after enduring a breakup, just like Gabriella and Troy? All we know for certain is that her words gave fans all the feels.

A month prior to their breakup, Camila Cabello told Glamour that she and Shawn Mendes were strong believers in therapy, which may explain why the singers were so comfortable talking openly about the real, raw emotions that they experienced after their split. In a March 2022 Apple Music interview, Cabello explained that she and Mendes basically grew up together, but ended up growing apart. "As I get older, the priorities shift," she said. "And I feel like it was that way for both of us." When Cabello and Mendes were first spied holding hands in 2019, they were 20 and 22, respectively. But while speaking to Zane Lowe three years later, Cabello said that they were both just starting to feel like real, well-adjusted adults. 

Although Cabello and her ex felt like they no longer meshed as a couple, she said, "I love Shawn, and I feel like there is literally nothing but love for him." Days after Cabello's interview, Mendes took to Instagram to share his own thoughts about the breakup. He seemed to confirm that he initiated the split, saying that it felt right at the time. But he didn't realize how much his life would change afterward. "Who do I call when I'm in a panic attack? Who do I call when I'm f***ing on the edge?" he said in a video. "I think that's the reality that kind of hit me; it's like, 'I'm on my own now.'"

Shawn Mendes confirmed that "When You're Gone" was about his split from Camila Cabello in an April 2022 interview with Extra, saying that he wrote it when he was reflecting back on some of the happier times they shared together. He also revealed that he reached out to Cabello to let her know that the tearjerker of a tune was incoming. "Camila and I have always been writers for as long as we've known each other, so we understand what that means," he said. "And there'll always be transparency between us."

Because all's fair in love and war — or, in this case, love and peace — Cabello released her own song about the split. In "Bam Bam," she sings, "I said I'd love you for life but I just sold our house / We were kids at the start, I guess we're grown-ups now." In December 2021, the Los Angeles villa where Cabello and Mendes made so many memories together had been purchased. Cabello pocketed $4.3 million from the sad sale.

Cabello told Apple Music host Zane Lowe that she hoped others experiencing the heartbreak of failed relationships would be able to relate to the personal story that she shares in "Bam Bam." In her view, it contains a message of hope. "Hopefully, this can make you be like, 'It is that way now, but things are always taking crazy turns,'" she said.

Shawn Mendes gave fans an update on the status of his relationship with Camila Cabello in an April 2022 "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" appearance. "[We're] so friendly. I mean, I loved Camila first for so many years and that's never gonna change," he said. Ryan Seacrest then pointed out that Mendes and Cabello would both be performing at Wango Tango that year and suggested that the exes should consider reuniting onstage. "I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't put it past us," Mendes responded.

But a month before fans got to see if such a reunion happened, Mendes and Cabello both attended the Met Gala. "They were seen talking briefly, and the interaction was friendly and authentic," a source told Hollywood Life. The insider also confirmed the validity of Mendes' assurance that he and Cabello had remained friends since their breakup. A few days later, Cabello's good friend Anitta attended the Billboard Music Awards and shared her assessment of Cabello's life as a single lady. "I don't think she had a hard time in the breakup. She's just happy," the "Envolver" singer told ET.

Unfortunately for their fans, Cabello and Mendes didn't perform a surprise duet at Wango Tango, but the exes were reportedly spotted speaking to each other again at the event. "Their interactions with each other are always kind of flirty, but not in a lusty sorta way," a source told Hollywood Life. "They are more like flirty best friends."

Camila Cabello and Austin Kevitch were spotted taking an evening stroll down a Los Angeles street in June 2022. In photos shared by Page Six, Cabello was pictured flashing a big smile at Kevitch and having an animated conversation with him.

In the 2021 "Cinderella" movie, actor Nicholas Galitzine plays the prince who woos Cabello's titular character. It's also possible that he played the role of her fairy godfather by helping her find love; per Galitzine's Instagram page, he and Kevitch are besties who go way back. Kevitch is also the founder of his own dating app called Lox Club. But seeing as how Cabello revealed on "The Drew Barrymore Show" that she never found love when she briefly experimented with online dating, it's doubtful that she met Kevitch through his creation.

Kevitch told E! that Lox Club was originally just a spoof of other dating apps. But when the pandemic hit, he realized that his concept could actually be profitable. Part of his job involves planning fun group gatherings. "I always want it to have activities there so the dating part or meeting people kind of feels like a fun by-product," he said. This sounds like something that would have appealed to Cabello at the time. "I'm just trying to have a good time. I just want to live my life and have great friendships," she told Cosmopolitan UK in July 2022. "If something comes out of [them] that's something more, then that's great."

The same month Camila Cabello and Austin Kevitch were first spotted together, Shawn Mendes embarked on his "Wonder" world tour. Ahead of a scheduled July 2022 concert in Milwaukee, he spoke to reporters about how Cabello inspired some of the songs he would be performing. "It's a healing process for me to write about how I feel and put it into music," he said, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But before he took the stage in Milwaukee, he announced the postponement of that show and multiple others.

Mendes' hiatus was supposed to last for three weeks, but on July 27, he took to Twitter to announce that he was canceling the North America and Europe legs of the tour. "After speaking more with my team and working with an incredible group of health professionals, it has become more clear that I need to take the time I've never taken personally, to ground myself and come back stronger," he wrote.

During his break, Mendes reportedly joined Raya, a dating app that competes for the same elite echelon of clientele that Kevitch aims to attract. Mendes also supposedly linked his dating profile to his Instagram. And while he was commencing a search for someone new to write love songs about, Cabello and Kevitch were still going strong; on August 9, People published a photo of the new couple holding hands.

Days before Shawn Mendes announced the cancellation of his "Wonder" world tour in July 2022, the Daily Mail published photos of the singer grabbing a bite to eat with his chiropractor, Dr. Jocelyne Miranda, in Los Angeles. They were garbed in athletic gear, and it was reportedly a commonplace occurrence for the pair to work out together. However, because Mendes was single, there was soon speculation that Miranda's relationship with him wasn't purely professional or platonic. Adding fuel to the romance gossip were pics of the twosome shared in November 2022. The rumored couple was photographed holding hands and placing their arms around each other.

Apparently, Miranda has known Mendes since at least 2018. She joined him on his self-titled tour, providing what she described as assessment and treatment. Mendes appears in a number of photos on her Instagram page, including an October 2019 snapshot that shows the doc placing a hand on the singer's bare chest. But there are also tons of pics of Miranda working with her other celebrity clients, such as Justin Bieber.

Miranda and Mendes were spied together at a Grammy afterparty in February 2023, and that same month, there were published photos of the workout buddies enjoying a morning hike in Runyon Canyon Park. But in March 2023, a source told ET, "[Mendes] was never dating Dr. Jocelyn Miranda and it has never been romantic between them."

In May 2022, Camila Cabello announced that she was joining "The Voice." Her fellow judges were John Legend and two singers who have experience recovering from high-profile breakups with other entertainers: Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton.

In a September 2022 episode of the show, Cabello apparently thought that the show's producers were pulling a fast one on her by asking her ex, Shawn Mendes, to pose as a contestant and perform while all of the judges' backs were turned to the stage. This is because one of the competitors, Tanner Howe, decided to sing Mendes' song "Mercy" — while sounding exactly like the Canadian pop sensation. He'd only sung a few words when Cabello said, "Is that my — is that Shawn up there?" Her confusion seemed to amuse her fellow judges. "I thought that was Shawn," Cabello said to Stefani, who smiled at her and responded, "Wow."

Cabello ended up being the only judge who didn't turn around for Howe. While explaining why she didn't hit her red button, she told the singer, "I felt like you sounded a little bit too much like [Mendes]." Howe responded, "I really respect Shawn as an artist and I see myself in that lane." Cabello's reply was a bit cheeky. "I was in his lane deeply," she quipped, earning herself a "Whoa!" from Shelton. After the judges had a little more fun with Cabello's comment, Howe decided to join Team Gwen.

Camila Cabello experienced two big losses in February 2023. First, her breakup song about her relationship with Shawn Mendes, "Bam Bam," failed to win her a Grammy in the best pop duo/group performance category, although she did have a sense of humor about the loss. On Instagram, she shared a message for her collaborator, Ed Sheeran, that read, "It's an honor to be nominated with u and also lose in front of Beyoncé with u."

Days after the awards show, subscribers to the Lox Club newsletter learned that Cabello and Austin Kevitch were no longer dating. The facetious announcement was included in an email titled "Company Gossip No One Asked For" (via E!). "Austin is single again ... slide into his DM's while there's still time," it read. A source told ET that Cabello and Kevitch's split wasn't bitter or messy, saying, "They're both just very busy in their careers. It became difficult to balance that and their relationship."

After the split, one of Cabello's neighbors claimed to Deuxmoi (via E!) that they spotted Mendes heading to Cabello's apartment with a floral bouquet in hand. However, the eyewitness insisted that the exes were not back together and speculated that Mendes was dropping the flowers off to congratulate Cabello for her Grammy nomination. Or maybe the thoughtful gesture was his way of consoling her after she lost out on the award and lost her man?

In February 2023, Shawn Mendes kept everyone guessing about his love life; he showed some skin while working up a sweat with Jocelyne Miranda and took a fully-clothed stroll with "Skin" singer Sabrina Carpenter. Days after photos surfaced of Mendes on a shirtless hike with Miranda, more pics were published of Carpenter walking beside Mendes with a huge grin on her face. She was gazing up at him as he looked down at her with a somewhat contemplative expression on his face, hands jammed in the pockets of his jean jacket. Carpenter had on an oversize sweatshirt that looked like it was closer to Mendes' size.

The December prior, Carpenter had commented on an Instagram video of Mendes. He celebrated Christmas by stripping down to his underwear, jumping in a freezing river, chilling for a bit (literally), and revealing that the icy plunge left his body totally numb. "Was it cold tho," Carpenter cheekily asked.

After Mendes and Carpenter were spotted leaving Miley Cyrus' album release party together in March 2023, a source told ET that the singers were dating. "They have been hanging out a lot and trying to keep things low-key," the insider said. "They were at a birthday party together a couple weeks ago and were cute together. Shawn is happy." But when RTL Boulevard asked Mendes about Carpenter a few days after ET published its report, he denied the dating rumors.

In April 2023, a photo of Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello sharing a kiss went viral. The exes had reunited at the Coachella music festival, where they partied with a group of pals. A video of the smooch also started circulating on Twitter, and it was straight out of a rom-com. A laughing Cabello grabbed one of Mendes' arms and moved in front of him as he put his arm around her and leaned down to initiate the passionate kiss. If it looked like they were oddly comfortable in each other's company for exes, well, a source later told People, "They have been friendly for several months and hung out." However, another insider told ET that the liplock was not an indication that Cabello and Mendes were officially a couple again. "It's very casual at this point," the source said of the state of their relationship. "There is still undeniable chemistry between the two and everyone around them can feel it."

Their reunion was reportedly planned, but we're just going to guess that the exes weren't expecting to send their fans into a frenzy by making out; they looked pretty oblivious to what was going on around them when they threw all caution to the wind. Cabello later seemed to allude to the smooch when she shared a Coachella photo dump on Instagram. Mendes didn't make an appearance in it, but her slideshow did start with a closeup of her lips. Her caption simply read, "It's whatever."