Shawn Mendes Got Real About Gay Rumors And Hailey Baldwin For Rolling Stone

For a 20-year-old superstar notoriously tight-lipped about his personalized life, Shawn Mendes had a lot to mention about himself in a new, no-holds-barred Rolling Stone cover story. Titled "Confessions of a Neurotic Teen Idol," the profile includes intimate specifics of Shawn's rumored former relationship with Hailey Baldwin right now, Hailey Bieber) and the theories about his sexuality that surround his image online.


Though paparazzi spotted Shawn and Hailey with each other around Toronto, and the two walked hand-in-hand down the 2018 Met Gala red carpet, the duo insisted they were just companions. They dodged questions for months about the possible relationship, even resulting in an awkward interview in which Shawn was asked if he'd sing at Hailey's wedding, once news of her engagement to Justin Bieber was made public.


In the Rolling Stone profile, Shawn admits the two were definitely past the friend zone, nevertheless not far enough to label their sort-of romance: "I do not even wanna put a title on it." Now, as Shawn views photographs of other celebrity couples, he feels pressure "to get paparazzied" with girls to feel relevant.


Some of that pressure is tied to long-standing, unfounded rumors and theories about Shawn's sexuality, which he describes as "this massive, massive thing for the last five years about me being gay." Though he acknowledges that "in my heart I know that [being gay is] not a bad thing," Shawn confesses that the internet's obsessive nit-picking over his every movement bothers him.


In his most candid quote, the singer lays out the stakes of the constant task to out him as gay. "You fucking guys are so lucky I’m not actually gay and terrified of coming out," Shawn says. "That’s something that kills people. That's how sensitive it is."


For the rest of the magazine cover story, Shawn sheds light on other areas of his life that fans may not know about, like drug use and his team's task to elevate him from the Vine fame that got him began. Read the complete article here and visualize parts of Shawn's cover shoot, below.