Shawn Mendes explains why ‘ignorant and insensitive’ gay rumours upset him

Shawn Mendes has said that rumours about his sexuality are “ignorant and insensitive”.

The Canadian singer-songwriter explained that he was left upset by claims that he was gay, and that his relationship with fellow pop star Camila Cabello was an elaborate publicity stunt.

“There was a desperation for me to come out as being gay, which is such a ridiculous thing,” Mendes told The Guardian. “I got upset because I know people who are gay who haven’t come out and I know the suffering they experience because of that.”

He continued: “It’s just completely ignorant and insensitive of people to be on that s***.”

Mendes and Cabello have been in a couple since 2019, with the pair living together during lockdown. However, they have faced rumours that their relationship is fake, something Mendes has denied.

In September 2019, Mendes told a paparazzi photographer that the pair’s relationship was “definitely not a publicity stunt”.

Mendes, whose life and career was this month given the documentary treatment in a Netflix film titled Wonder, also revealed to The Guardian that he nearly walked away from music after experiencing “a meltdown” earlier this year.

“I burnt out and had a meltdown within, but not externally,” he explained. “I came extremely close [to quitting]. Extremely, extremely close … I realised it’s not the industry, it’s the way I do the industry. I let the industry control what I do, rather than me controlling my life.”

Shawn Mendes at the Grammys in January (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Mendes’s new album, also titled Wonder, was last week (3 December) dubbed “pleasantly forgettable” by The Independent.