Camila Cabello Dishes on Her Blossoming Relationship With Shawn Mendes: "I Love Him"

Updated on 9/7/2019 at 1:30 PM

Elle | Yvan Fabing

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes might not shy away from PDA while hanging out, but don't expect them to talk much about their romance. In Elle magazine's October issue, Camila addressed the hearsay surrounding their relationship, and let's just say she's remaining pretty tight-lipped about details.

Following the release of their steamy music video for "Señorita," Camila and Shawn sparked dating rumors with a touchy-feely LA outing in early July, followed by a Miami makeout session later that month. Though they initially denied any sort of flame, Shawn recently told fans, "Honestly, I wanna say I wanna talk to you guys about this stuff, but it's not just me in the relationship. There's another person involved and I can't say things that I feel. It's not just me deciding, you know?" Well, Camila has now spoken her piece, and it sounds like she's taking their romance very seriously. Look ahead to read her thoughts on dating Shawn and their recent collaboration!

On working with Shawn Mendes on "Señorita": "I mean, I love him. We have always connected; we have the best time together. Shawn texted me the idea for the chorus for 'Señorita.' He was like, 'Hey, what if we work on this and do it together?' I was on the Taylor Swift tour and hadn't been in the studio for a while. I didn't want to do it, and then a few months later, I couldn't get the song out of my head. I [finally] told him, 'I think we should do this.' He was like, 'I don't want to do it anymore.' It went back and forth for, like, eight months. Then we finally went into the studio and reworked it so we both felt good about it, without any pressure. I love working with him so much."

On rumors surrounding her relationship with Shawn Mendes: "I don't know; people can say whatever they want to say. They can speculate, but at the same time, we are going to live our own lives, enjoy it, and fall for each other like nobody is watching. That is how I want to live. I never want to open the door for people to feel like they are involved. Like I said, I want it to be mine and [his]. That's why I'm so tight-lipped about it: because I want to protect it."

On keeping her romantic life private: "Love is the most sacred, precious thing to me. I want to always feel like my love is between me and that person, and never belonging to anyone else. As much as I love my fans, and as much as I love people, I like to live my life as normally as possible. In a relationship, it makes me feel uncomfortable to invite everyone in on that."

On becoming more confident: "I think I just know myself more. I'm more gentle with myself. I think I naturally have less anxiety now, because I realized that so many of the things that brought it on weren't so scary after all. No matter who the person is or how much I want to impress them, I'm not going to let that rule how I act, how open I am, or what my opinion is. I'm just going to be myself. I listen to my gut. That's all I can do."