Olivia Rodrigo has addressed ongoing chatter that she’s been at odds with Sabrina Carpenter following a much-discussed past love triangle.
Both artists sit among pop’s biggest names right now, but for years there have been persistent rumors that the pair don’t exactly get along.
The speculation traces back about five years, when Rodrigo and Carpenter were widely linked in a supposed love triangle involving fellow Disney alum Joshua Bassett.
At the time, fans connected the situation to music released by both singers. Rodrigo’s breakout single, ‘Drivers License’, was widely believed to draw from her breakup with Bassett, particularly a lyric that caught listeners’ attention.
In the song, Rodrigo sings “you’re probably with that blonde girl”, prompting many to assume it referenced Bassett being romantically connected to Carpenter.
Despite how dramatic the narrative became online, Rodrigo has now pushed back on the idea that there’s any lingering tension between them, suggesting the public storyline has been overstated.
“I think she’s great,” Olivia said of Sabrina to British Vogue. “I’m so happy for all of her success too. I love the album she’s put out.”
She also pointed to the way internet discourse can amplify rumors, adding: “It’s just people just get weird and clickbaity — it’s all love, though. I’ve talked to her many times.”
Carpenter has also previously spoken about the moment, after being asked by Rolling Stone in June last year whether her song ‘Skin’ was meant as a direct response to ‘Drivers License’—especially the line ‘maybe blonde was the only rhyme’.
“I didn’t really intentionally do that,” she told the outlet. “All I knew was that it wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I loved, ever. That’s kind of how I’ve always felt. Sometimes, it’s about how you are able to be resilient.”
Continuing on what she learned from that period, Carpenter said: “What that era taught me was to just trust myself, and trust that everything is going to work out the way it’s supposed to, and trust that relationships are put into your life for a reason.
“You might not see that in the moment, but you see it later.”
Elsewhere in her British Vogue conversation, Rodrigo reflected on how intense life felt when she first became famous as a teenager, describing just how much she was juggling at the time.
“I was going through a break-up, working a full-time job, a student in high school and taking three AP classes,” she added.
“Looking back, I always think, ‘Wow, life will never be as hard as it was when I was 17.'”