Charlie Puth has finally admitted he dated Selena Gomez – and he hinted that their relationship failed because she was still in love with Justin Bieber.
In an interview with Billboard, Puth described his romance with Gomez as “very short-lived, very small, but very impactful.”
He added: “It really messed me up.”
Without mentioning Bieber by name, Puth explained: “It wasn’t like I was the only person on her mind. And I think I knew that going in – what I was getting myself into.”
Gomez added her vocals to Puth’s song “We Don’t Talk Anymore” in late 2015 and it was released as a single in 2016 off his debut album Nine Track Mind.
“It’s about a particular moment in my life, when someone very close to me wanted the attention of somebody else,” he said. “When I found that out and we ended it, I might have done some shady things too, and she might have asked me, 'How long has this been going on?’
“I don’t kiss and tell, but the only way a song like that can come across as real is if there’s something else going on behind the scenes.”
Gomez went on to date Canadian singer The Weeknd before rekindling her romance with Bieber.
Elsewhere in the Billboard interview, we learn that Puth is currently working with Canadian fitness coach Harley Pasternak to get in shape for his summer tour, which kicks off July 11 in Toronto.
The trek is in support of his sophomore album Voicenotes, which was originally set to drop last month but has been pushed to May 11.
Puth said he is anxious for fans to hear the new collection, which will include the hits “Attention” and “How Long” as well as the Boyz II Men collaboration “If You Leave Me Now.”
The 26-year-old singer said 2016’s Nine Track Mind “was not me at all” and was “a mishmash pile of music” rushed out to capitalize on the success of his Wiz Khalifa smash “See You Again.” (On working with Khalifa, Puth recalled: “I’d never seen so much marijuana in my life.”)
“I made a lot of money off of ‘See You Again’ and will continue to, but it did nothing for me as an artist,” said Puth. “I was not happy that people made these assumptions that I was this candy-boy pop-tart artist singing other people’s s**t.”