Why Did Phoebe Bridgers & Paul Mescal Split? All About Their Breakup - Just Jared - Celebrity News and Gossip

With Phoebe Bridgers dropping her first new music in four years, fans will likely be going back through her dating history to try and figure out who the song is about.

The 31-year-old Grammy winner just released her song “Lost Boys,” in which she sings about a failed romance and Peter Pan syndrome on the new track.

Fans are going to likely be wondering if the song is about Phoebe‘s ex-boyfriend Paul Mescal, so let’s take a look at what happened in their relationship and breakup.

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Paul Mescal and Phoebe Bridgers were first linked in 2020

Paul and Phoebe first sparked dating rumors in 2020.

It all started back in May 2020 when Phoebe tweeted, “finished normal people and now I’m sad and horny oh wait.” Paul then responded, “I’m officially dead.”

In an interview with NME, Phoebe referred to Paul as “the cute boy” and said that she got a “pitter-patter in my heart” when she saw that he followed her on Instagram. Phoebe then sent Paul her new album Punisher before she interviewed him on Instagram Live for his first cover feature with a fashion magazine.

They confirmed their relationship in November 2021 by walking the red carpet together at the LACMA Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles.

One month later they went Instagram Official with a selfie posted to Phoebe‘s account with no caption.

The couple later attended the Met Gala together in May 2022.

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Split rumors surfaced in late 2022

By December 2022, fans speculated that Phoebe and Paul broke up and she was linked to someone else at that point.

A source told DeuxMoi at the time, “Can confirm the engagement is off between Paul Mescal and Phoebe Bridgers. It’s not an open relationship in the slightest. Paul found out about Phoebe and Bo and called off the engagement.”

At the same time, Phoebe was spotted on a date with comedian Bo Burnham, attending a play in New York City. The Deux U podcast had also reported that Phoebe and Bo were spotted “making out” and “canoodling” on multiple occasions in Los Angeles.

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Lyrics that were seemingly about Paul Mescal

Phoebe was featured on SZA‘s song “Ghost in the Machine,” which was released in December 2022.

Phoebe sings in her verse, “You said all of my friends are on my payroll / You’re not wrong, you’re an a–hole / Screaming at you in the Ludlow / I was yours for free.”

“I don’t get existential / I just think about myself and look where that got me / Standin’ on my own in an airport bar or hotel lobby / Waiting to feel clean / That’s so f–king boring,” she continues.

The lyrics seem to be referencing a fight that took place at The Ludlow Hotel in New York City. Perhaps it was between her and Paul?

In an interview released that month, Phoebe revealed that she wrote the lyrics in the last few weeks after SZA hit her up on Instagram.

“She just hit me up, she just sent me a DM,” she told NME. “It all happened so fast. I wasn’t really used to that in the pop world, because vinyl isn’t so much of a consideration until way later, it’s just like, ‘Do you want to be on this record? Okay, it’s out next week’, which I really like. I like that turnaround time.”

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Paul Mescal addresses the breakup rumors

In a February 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, the reporter asked Paul about the speculation surrounding the status of his relationship and if he had a desire to chime in.

“I definitely feel the temptation to say the status of my whatever—that will always be there. But I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do. When Normal People came out, I was very forthright in interviews, and it didn’t actually serve me. But the temptation still exists to be like, ‘Shut the f–k up. This is my life. This is what’s going on. Or this is what’s not going on.’ But moving forward as much as I can, that’s going to be my life that is private. That’s a difficult thing to achieve. But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn’t actually help me. It’s like a quick boost of serotonin, being like, ‘I’ve said what I need to say.’ And then it’s just Twitter fodder,” Paul said.

In August 2023, Paul again addressed speculation about his personal life.

“If I’m going to make TV shows like Normal People, there’s going to be an appetite from the world. Eighty percent of that is palatable. And then 20 percent of it is devastating,” he shared with Harper’s Bazaar.

“The stuff that hurts is the personal stuff. It’s nobody else’s business and should never be commented on because it’s indecent. And it’s unkind,” he added. “Honest answer, it makes me angry…It’s the entitlement to the information that people expect that just drives me f-cking mad.”

Posted To:Paul Mescal Phoebe Bridgers