Mendes, 26, became famous after covering songs on the video-sharing platform Vine.
Since then, he’s had an impressive career in the music industry, with hits such as ‘Señorita’ and ‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back.’
Throughout Mendes’ career, he’s felt the need to address rumors about his s**uality – with his latest comments being the most candid ever.
The ‘Mercy’ artist publically commented on his s**ual orientation for the first time when he was 17 years old.
In a Snapchat video, he said: “First of all, I’m not gay. Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was… The focus should be the music.”
In 2018, Mendes told Rolling Stone it had become a ‘massive, massive thing’ for people to speculate whether he was gay.
He elaborated on the matter with The Guardian a year later, describing the rumors as ‘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,” Mendes added.
While these statements should have been the end of the discussion, Mendes has continuously had to respond to such speculation – despite high-profile relationships with women including Camila Cabello.
Mendes and Cabello began dating in 2019 and together, they went viral with their steamy performance of ‘Señorita’ at the VMAs.
Fans were left devastated when the couple called it quits in 2021, however, they did reunite for a few months in 2023.
Cabello opened up about the breakup on the Call Her Daddy podcast, saying: “You’re just kind of like, it’s not a fit, it doesn’t feel right. And I think, luckily, I was in a place in my life where it took me less time to realize that.
“It took us both less time to be like, ‘This doesn’t feel right and we don’t need to try so hard to make it work.’”
Mendes was also romantically linked to pop star Sabrina Carpenter in early 2023, yet he later denied a relationship.
Despite this, many fans believe Cabello and Carpenter have addressed a love triangle in their songs ‘C,XOXO’ and ‘Short n’ Sweet.’
The conversation surrounding Mendes’ s**uality ignited after he debuted his new song, ‘The Mountain,’ from his upcoming album ‘Shawn.’
In a TikTok video uploaded by a fan on October 19, the singer performed the track as he strummed on a guitar.
He sang the lyrics: “I have a change of heart / you can say what you need to say / you can say I’m too young / you can say I’m too old / you can say I like girls or boys / whatever fits your mold.”
During a performance in Colorado, Mendes made further comments about his s**uality before singing the track.
The pop star told the crowd: “I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times. It feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that.”
He added: “The truth is that I didn’t get to do a lot of 15-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at 15.
“There’s this thing about my s**uality, and people have been talking about it so long,’ he then added it’s ‘kind of silly, because I think s**uality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes.”
He continued: “It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it.
“The real truth about my life and my s**uality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone.”
Elsewhere in the speech, Mendes said he wanted to be ‘closer to everyone’ and ‘kind of be in my truth.’