Getting RealShawn Mendes Explains Why Rumors He’s Gay Are ‘Frustrating’: Every Time the Singer Talked Sexuality

Growing Up in the Public Eye

“Everyone’s been calling me gay since I was 15 years old. I’m not gay and I’m like, ‘What does that mean?’ I had these problems with the way my voice sounded,” he said on the “Armchair Expert” podcast in December 2020. “I’m like, ‘How do I sit?’ I’m always first to cross my legs and sit with a position of this feminine style and I really suffered with that s–t.”

Shawn continued, “I think a lot of guys go through that and, even worse than that, there are so many guys who are gay and in the closet and must be hearing s–t like that and being like, ‘I’m terrified to come out.'”

Reflecting on His Childhood

During the same “Armchair Expert” interview, Shawn said he grew up surrounded by female cousins.

“I didn’t grow up wrestling. I grew up getting my hair braided on New Year’s Eve. It just completely depends on the way you grew up in your life and your surroundings,” he explained, noting that he’s found a “divine middle ground” with his sexuality. “I’m still a little bit more manly than that so I don’t know, it’s a little confusing so I’m just gonna let it be what it is.”

The ‘Desperation’ to Come Out

“There was a desperation for me to come out as being gay, which is such a ridiculous thing,” he said during a December 2020 interview with 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. It’s just completely ignorant and insensitive of people to be on that s–t.”

The Rumors Affect Others

“For me, it’s hurtful. I get mad when people assume things about me because I imagine the people who don’t have the support system I have and how that must affect them,” he explained while chatting with The Guardian in April 2019. “That was why I was so angry, and you can see I still get riled up, because I don’t think people understand that when you come at me about something that’s stupid you hurt so many other people. They might not be speaking, but they’re listening.”

Proving Himself

When talking about his public perception during a Rolling Stone interview from November 2018, Shawn addressed, “This massive, massive thing for the last five years about me being gay.”

“In the back of my heart, I feel like I need to go be seen with someone — like a girl — in public, to prove to people that I’m not gay,” he said at the time. “Even though in my heart I know that it’s not a bad thing. There’s still a piece of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me.”

The Taylor Swift Video

After Shawn joined Taylor Swift on tour in 2018, the songstress shared a video of herself putting eyeshadow on him. He addressed his feelings about this during the same Rolling Stone interview.

“I felt sick,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘F–k, why did I let her post that?’ I just fed the fire that I’m terrified of.”

Then, he told the magazine that he realized, “Maybe I am a little more feminine — but that’s the way it is. That’s why I am me.”

The Snapchat of It All

In 2016, Shawn addressed the rumors head-on in a now-viral Snapchat video.

“I noticed a lot of people were saying I gave them a ‘gay vibe,’” he said in the clip, which has since been reposted online. “First of all, I’m not gay. Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or wasn’t.”