Shawn Peter Raul Mendes didn’t set out to become a superstar – he just loved singing, and the world happened to notice. Growing up in Pickering, Ontario, the teenager found a home on Vine, where his six-second covers caught fire for their effortless charm and big, emotive voice. Not long after, he was selling out arenas and racking up awards, but somehow, he still comes across less like a tabloid fixture and more like the kid next door who hit it big.
Watching Mendes live, it’s often the small moments that stand out. At one 2019 show, he paused for nearly 20 minutes just to chat with fans, joking and admitting his anxieties. For all the spotlight, he admitted to Rolling Stone in 2018, fame hasn’t cured his stage fright. He still lies awake after shows, replaying conversations and worrying if he came across as awkward – proof that, beneath the close-cropped hair and Billboard hits, he’s still figuring things out.
The 2018 album that bears his name marked a creative leap. Gone were the safe pop formulas in favor of something more bare and personal, signaling a young artist ready to get real with both his audience and himself.
The Women in Shawn’s Life
Talk of Shawn’s private life isn’t new – rumors and headlines have followed him for years – but lately, he’s made a point of keeping things closer to the chest. Mendes’ most public romance, with Camila Cabello, began officially in summer 2019, though the two were clear that friendship came first. Their chemistry, both on “Señorita” and off, was undeniable. Still, real life wasn’t always as seamless as a music video. After a high-profile split in November 2021, the pair briefly reunited in 2023 before deciding to part ways for good. Friends say that breakup was a tough one, especially since Mendes had once envisioned a more settled future together.
In the months before and after Cabello, Mendes’s love life generated plenty of speculation. There was a brief spark with Sabrina Carpenter in late 2022, though both have since moved on. Paparazzi snaps with chiropractor Jocelyne Miranda set off wild theories in the summer of 2022, while British presenter Charlie Travers was briefly linked to him after a party appearance in late 2023. Mendes, for his part, tends to sidestep direct comments on romance, focusing interviews on his growth as an artist and his shifting mental health.
He touched on the pressures of living out relationships in public during a candid appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “When you’re in the public eye, relationships become performances whether you want them to or not,” he admitted – a lesson learned the hard way. One tour insider said Mendes has become “way more protective” about what he shares, especially after seeing how the public microscope affected things with Cabello.
Recently, Mendes seems to be embracing time on his own. He canceled his Wonder tour in 2022, citing the need to focus on his mental health, and has since been spotted seeking out mindfulness practices and spiritual advice. The next time he lets someone in, friends suspect, it will be on his own terms and at his own pace.
Past Relationships
Charlie Travers
Sabrina Carpenter
Jocelyne Miranda
Camila Cabello
Alessia Cara
Sofie Rovenstine
Hailey Bieber
Heartbreak and self-reflection inevitably bleed into his music. His post-Cabello singles feel rawer, more confessional – a far cry from the glossy love songs that made his name. “When You’re Gone” is a particularly vulnerable admission: “I don’t know how to feel normal again,” he sings, sounding less like a pop star and more like any young person piecing themselves back together after love and loss. Mendes, it seems, is still writing his story, even as the whole world watches.
