Shawn Mendes Reveals How Past Pregnancy Scare Changed Him

Shawn Mendes opened his journal to a page and chose a new direction.

The 26-year-old recently reflected on his decision to include details of a pregnancy scare he experienced with an unnamed partner in his 2024 song “Why Why Why,” noting that he initially didn’t agree when a producer suggested the lyrics.

“Then I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” he remembered in an interview with The New York Times published Oct. 31. And in addition to wanting to honor life’s complex moments, he added of the inclusion, “I wanted to break down any walls that were remaining, between me and people listening.”

In the song—which is a vulnerable look into his struggles in and out of the spotlight—Shawn sings, “Thought I was about to be a father / Shook me to the core, I'm still a kid / Sometimes I still cry out for my mother.”

It was an experience, Shawn—who previously dated Camila Cabello and was linked to Sabrina Carpenter and Hailey Bieber—admitted, that “taught me a lot as a man.”

“Why Why Why” also chronicles the Grammy nominee's mental health struggles, ones which caused him to take a major step back from the spotlight in 2022 at which time he cancelled a two-year international tour.

“I stepped off the stage with nothin' left,” Shawn sings in one of the verses. “All the lights were f--kin' with my head / But here I am, singin' songs again.”

It was a time of his life the pop star is still grappling with.

“I felt super, super lost,” he admitted. “The shows I could get through and find beauty in them. But when I would step offstage, I just didn’t recognize myself. I was a shell—like talking to a wall.”

And it was when he found himself looking to alcohol and smoking ahead of shows, and alcohol again as a means of “escape” after the shows, he decided to make a change.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going to rewrite the same story that’s been written a thousand times by musicians and artists,’” he explained. “Where they can’t cope and they’d start taking more drugs, more alcohol, until it’s too much. I’m not doing that. I’m just going hard left.”

But while he noted of the canceled shows, “Letting people down sucks,” he can also admit the moment was a turning point.

As he admitted, it was “a huge lesson for me in becoming an adult, which is that you don’t get to live this life without hurting people.”

The trying period of his life, as well as the pregnancy scare, are just two of the many vulnerable moments Shawn addresses in his new album. But the creative outlet was a perfect partner on his healing journey.

“Healing takes time,” he noted. “More than you want. And it’s beautiful, because you can be healing and expressing at the same time. You can be joyful and grieving simultaneously.”

And as for his romantic life, he still considers Camila one of his best friends.

“I have nerves just even speaking about it, just what people would say,” he told the NYT. “But honestly, if something was to happen in my family and if something was to happen to me, she’d probably be the first person I call, to this day.”

In fact, Shawn noted, “Our relationship is teaching me what love means, in a big way.”

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