Here’s a timeline of their journey from friends to lovers then back to friends again — and now, maybe back to lovers.
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello backstage during the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on Aug. 26, 2019 in Newark, N.J.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello shocked fans when they seemingly rekindled their romance at Coachella on Friday (April 14), as a clip circulated social media in which the former couple is seen sharing a passionate kiss on the festival grounds.
The update came less than two years after announcing their split in November 2021.
Mendes and Cabello’s friendship dates back to 2014, when he and Cabello’s then-group Fifth Harmony opened for Austin Mahone on tour. Rumors about their romantic relationship kicked into high gear following the release of their “Senorita” duet in June 2019, especially given the song’s steamy music video.
Below, Billboard has compiled a timeline of their journey from friends to lovers then back to friends again.
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2014 – Austin Mahone tour
Mendes and Cabello met when the former Vine star and the songstress, who at the time was part of Fifth Harmony, opened for Austin Mahone on tour. In their June 2019 V magazine digital cover, the duo talked about their first impressions of one another. “I remember I wanted to hang out with you, but you were always on the tour bus, just learning guitar,” Cabello said, to which Mendes replied, “Yeah, that was me. I didn’t talk to anybody. You were the only person that talked to me. Like, you were the only one of everybody on that tour who would say words to me. Actually, I think if we go into our DM’s or something, there’s a photo from the day we met, I think.”
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April 2015 – Mendes picks Cabello in a round of “Lips, Wife or Leave It”
Image Credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images for iHeartMedia Mendes stopped by the U.K.’s Capital FM, where he played a round of “Lips, Wife or Leave It” (a PG version of “F—, Marry or Kill”) and was faced with a choice between the “Havana” singer, Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix or actress Chloë Grace Moretz. Naturally, he chose to marry Cabello. When asked if she’d be a good wife, the singer replied, “Yeah, she rocks.”
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November 2015 – “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Cabello’s first solo move came in the form of duet with Mendes. The two teamed up for “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which sparked dating rumors even back then. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, they talked about writing the song backstage during Taylor Swift’s 1989 Tour. “We were just backstage hanging out, I pulled out my guitar and we were just messing around, not really thinking about writing a song,” Mendes recalled.
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March 2017 – “Kiss Me” cover
Things quieted down between the two for a few years, as their respective careers skyrocketed. However, the two had the Shawnmila wheel turning again when they uploaded a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Kiss Me.”
Watch it here.
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May 2017 – “Crying in the Club” praise
Following the release of Cabello’s emotional solo single “Crying in the Club,” the heartthrob took to Twitter to share support for his friend. “speechless.. goosebumps all over. You’re incredible,” he wrote, linking to the song’s music video.
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April 2018 – Mendes calls Cabello his “favorite person in the whole world.”
“She’s my favorite person in the whole world,” Mendes said in a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe. “I shouldn’t be crying at this time in the morning but I AM,” Cabello tweeted in response. “i love you SO much.”
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April 2018 – “Real Friends” photo
Just a few days after the Beats 1 interview, Mendes went to one of Cabello’s shows on her headlining tour. The songstress took to Instagram to post a series of Polaroids they took together. “Real friends,” she captioned the post, along with a Canadian flag emoji.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiIjchOD2A7
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December 2018 – Cabello hints at a musical reunion
The pop star took to Twitter to share a photo of herself playing the guitar on the floor, while Mendes watched her. “Canadian fury + Latin sass,” she captioned the photo, and Shawnmila shippers went wild over the possibility of another collaboration.
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June 2019 – “Senorita”
After months of social media teasing, the duo dropped their sultry midtempo duet “Senorita,” full of lyrics like, “You say we’re just friends/ But friends don’t know the way you taste/ ‘Cause you know it’s been a long time coming/ Don’t you let me fall.” The accompanying music video shows the two developing a relationship, hook up and dance. The tune debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually topped the chart.
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July 2019 – Holding hands in West Hollywood
Around the same time as “Senorita,” the duo started getting a little less friendly and a lot more romantic. They were spotted holding hands in West Hollywood and spent the Fourth of July together at a party in Malibu the next day.
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July 2019 – PDA-filled weekend in San Francisco
Mendes was in the Bay Area on tour for two shows at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. On July 13, TMZ captured the duo kissing at a cafe in San Francisco. A day earlier, they locked lips in public once more at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe in SF.
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August 2019 – Cabello wishes Mendes a happy birthday
To celebrate his 21st birthday, Cabello posted a photo of her and Mendes to Instagram. “Happy birthday to this magic human, I love you!!!!” Cabello wrote in the caption of the pic, which is a lo-fi polaroid that shows Mendes playing with her hair.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B08zxPaHRFQ
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August 2019: “Señorita” at the VMAs
The duo took the stage together to perform their Hot 100-topping megahit duet “Señorita” for the first time live together. The performers got increasingly intimate over the course of the song, and at several points found their lips merely inches apart, teasing fans worldwide who had been rooting the duo. But of course, the kiss never quite happened.
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September 2019: *The* kiss
“So we saw like on Twitter and stuff, you guys saying about the way we were kissing and how it looks weird. Like we kiss like fish,” Mendes tells the camera in a clip posted to Instagram.
“Yeah, it really hurt our feelings,” Cabello chimes in.
“We just want to show you how we really kiss,” the Canadian pop star adds. And they plant a sloppy, wet one, confirming their relationship once and for all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2TF8KbgR5o
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October 2019 – Camila “really, really loves” Shawn
The “Havana” singer unapologetically gushed over her boyfriend in an interview with the Capital Breakfast radio show. “We’re pretty happy — I really, really love him a lot,” she told hosts Roman Kemp and Vick Hope. “This song was really fun because we got to just hang out again like we did on the song we did before, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ which is when we got really close,” she said of reuniting with Mendes for “Señorita.”
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November 2019 – A night by the courts
The “Señorita” collaborators were spotted locking lips courtside at an L.A. Clippers game as their fellow fans watched the team take on the Toronto Raptors inside the Staples Center. See the photos here.
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November 2019 – Matching tattoos
Tattoo artist Kane Navasard shared Mendes’ new tat on his Instagram page, a small letter “A” behind his ear, a tribute to his 16-year-old sister, Aaliyah. For Cabello’s first piece, the singer opted for the phrase, “it’s a mystery,” written in cursive on the inside of her pinky finger, referencing the 1998 version of Shakespeare in Love starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
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November 2019 – Post-AMAs letter
After their performance of “Señorita” at the American Music Awards, which won favorite collaboration of the year later that night, Cabello took to Instagram to shout-out her special someone and their fans. “i love you @shawnmendes thank u for being so there for me yesterday and every other day, u have the most caring and beautiful heart in the world !” she captioned their couple pictures from the awards show. “thanks to all our fans for voting , we love and appreciate you guys so much and are so thankful for you.”
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March 2020 – Cinderella-themed birthday party
Cabello turned 23 years old on March 3, 2020, and celebrated her birthday in England, where she was filming Cinderella. The Disney princess was the theme of her birthday party, which took place at the Blackpool Tower in London. Mendes flew across the pond to be in attendance, and the real-life Cinderella ball featured a glass slipper ice sculpture and a pumpkin-turned-carriage birthday cake.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9SgMBWnZUK
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March 2020 – Quarantine livestream
When not going for paparazzi-filled walks around Miami, Shawnmila spent the beginning of quarantine livestreaming from Miami. Notably, they took part in the Together, At Home: WHO-Global Citizen Solidarity Sessions, where they sang a number of songs, including Cabello’s “Havana” and Mendes’ “Lost in Japan,” before wrapping up with their hit duet “Señorita.”
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April 2020 – Hospital visit
Working with Ryan Seacrest’s eponymous charitable foundation, the pop star couple brightened the day for pediatric patients at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., by calling into the healthcare center via video chat. During the virtual visit, Cabello answered questions from the little ones, and Mendes played guitar, and both danced along with a pair of young patients to Megan Thee Stallion‘s “Savage.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-uRwYUp-tf
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May 2020 – Quarantine cuddles
Cabello posted an adorable picture on Instagram, one arm around Mendes and one around her dog Thunder, who looked as smiley as the happy couple quarantining together.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAijo0aprgN
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September 2020 – Wonder announcement
Things in the Shawnmila world were a bit quiet, as Cabello wrapped up Cinderella filming in the U.K., but fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when the “My Oh My” singer beamed with pride over Mendes’ upcoming album, proving that the couple were still going strong. After her “Señorita” collaborator shared a teaser video for his upcoming album, Cabello reposted the clip with a heart-melting message. “the world could use some magic, beauty, and Wonder always, but especially right now,” she wrote. “@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.” See her post here.
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October 2020 – Shawn’s sweet interview
Mendes sat down with SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up on SiriusXM Hits 1 to describe how his girlfriend inspired him to write his upcoming album and how he can’t wait to see her again after more than a month apart. “She’s doing amazing. I haven’t seen her actually in like a month and two weeks, not that I’m counting,” he told co-host Nicole Ryan, who wondered if Cabello had heard Shawn’s just-released single “Wonder” and what she thinks of it. “She’s back really soon and I think it’s interesting ’cause when your girlfriend is an insanely talented, real musician who writes her own music, it’s scary to write an album around her. And she was with me when I was kind of in the studio doing it. I realized the trick is like, show her the really rough demo version from your phone that you recorded, and if she doesn’t like that, she’ll tell you, then don’t wait to show her the mixed finished product. Because if she doesn’t like it then, then you’re kind of, I don’t know what to say to you. I’m sorry.”
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October 2020 – In Wonder documentary trailer
In the teaser for his In Wonder documentary, which will premiere on Netflix on Nov. 23, Cabello shows up throughout, in what appears to be the rehearsal and performance of their Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Señorita” at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. “My song comes on the radio or something, and I’m like, ‘Everything is about you, they’ve always been about you.’ She goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I’m like, ‘They’re all about you. Like every song I’ve ever wrote,’” Mendes says at the tail-end of the trailer.
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October 2020 – Reunion and new hairdos
Cabello took to Instagram on Oct. 22 to debut her new haircut with photo credit given to none other than Mendes. “LOST MY SHORT HAIR VIRGINITY!!!! I’ve had long hair all my life it’s TIME TO FEEL THE AIR ON THESE SHOULDERS BABY,” she captioned the snap, in which she’s seen in an alleyway smiling and looking over her shoulder. She followed it up with another lovey photo with Mendes, in which the “Señorita” couple is seen embracing with Cabello’s legs wrapped around Mendes. “heheheheheh,” she captioned the adorable snap.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGp42_Op5S3
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Nov. 17, 2021 – The breakup announcement
After two-plus years of dating, Cabello and Mendes announced on Nov. 17 that they’ve broken up but will “continue to be best friends.” The pair shared a matching statement, signed “Camila and Shawn,” on their respective Instagram Stories. “Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship but our love for one another as humans is stronger than ever,” the statement reads. “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.”
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March 2022 – “Bam Bam”
Cabello’s Familia single “Bam Bam” heavily referenced Mendes in its lyrics, and she later discussed the breakup with Zane Lowe during an appearance on Apple Music 1’s New Music Daily. “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? And apart from my career, my focus wasn’t even on my career,” she said.
“And same thing with those years that we were together. My focus was just, How can I live a happy life and be in a healthy, happy relationship? I was doing therapy a lot. My focus really has shifted,” she continued. “And even now while I’m in promo mode, honestly, if I’m not having fun, what’s the f—ing point? I think as I get older, yeah, the priorities shift. And I feel like that was that way for both of us. Because we both started so young too, we’re really learning how to be healthy adults. And that sometimes means not having your number one focus be your career. And that’s okay.”
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April 2023 – Coachella Reunion
It’s not over yet! Shawnmila fans were shocked when a clip circulated on social media featuring the duo embracing and sharing a passionate kiss while watching an evening performance at the Coachella music festival in Indio, Calif.
