Shawn Mendes on his sexuality: “I'm just figuring it out”

Shawn Mendes revealed “the real truth” about his sexuality on Monday, telling a theater full of fans that he's really “figuring it out like everyone else.”

The “Treat You Better” and “Stitches” singer opened up shortly before performing his latest single “The Mountain,” whose lyrics appear to address speculation about his sexuality. The musician debuted the song last week ahead of the Nov. 15 release of his fifth studio album, Shawn, and discussed its meaning onstage in Colorado at the final stop of his intimate For Friends and Family Tour.

“There's been this thing about my sexuality since I was really young and people have been talking about it for so long,” the 26-year-old said while strumming his guitar, according to fan footage from Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater posted on TikTok. “I find it kind of silly because I think sexuality is such a wonderful, complex thing and it's so hard to just put it in boxes.

“It always felt to me like an intrusion into something very personal, something I was figuring out within myself, something I hadn't yet discovered and still have yet to discover,” he continued.

Mendes said that writing “The Mountain” – a song with lyrics about a change of heart and rumored to like “girls or boys” – allowed him to address the discussion in a way that was close to his heart.

“I just speak freely now because I just want to be closer to everyone and just stay true to my truth,” he said. “The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that like everyone else, I'm just figuring it out. Sometimes I don’t really know, sometimes I do.”

The crowd erupted in cheers as the “Mercy” crooner continued.

“And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about it. And I try to be really brave and just allow myself to be human and feel things. And yeah, that’s all I really want to say about it right now,” he concluded.

The soulful pop-rocker has long been “frustrated” by rumors about his sexuality. He told Rolling Stone in 2018 that he felt pressure to be seen with women in public “to prove to people that I'm not gay.”

“Even though I know in my heart it’s not a bad thing. There's still a part of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me,” he said in an article titled “Confessions of a Neurotic Teen Idol.”

The Canadian star, who launched his music career by releasing covers on Vine, previously dated his “Señorita” co-star Camila Cabello for two years and, before that, Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin). Recently, there were rumors that he was dating chiropractor Jocelyn Miranda and singer Sabrina Carpenter, although he did not publicly confirm either of these relationships.

During an appearance on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast in 2020, the singer-songwriter said that “everyone” had called him gay since he was 15 when he would sit and that he “really suffered from it.”

“I think a lot of men go through this, and what's worse is there are so many men who are gay and in the closet who have to hear things like that and say, 'I'm terrified of coming out'.” '” he said.

He said that he feels “this real anger at these people” and that he is working to find a “divine middle ground” with his sexuality that artists like Queen's Freddie Mercury had.