Camila Cabello didn't want to call her boyfriend Shawn Mendes "baby" straight away.

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes

The 22-year-old singer has been dating the 'Treat You Better' hitmaker since the summer and, although they were best friends for many years before that, she felt uncomfortable calling him by the pet name until they were well into their relationship.

Speaking on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on Thursday (05.12.19), Camila said: "It's so funny because when we first started going out it's so weird... [dating] somebody who was your friend for a really long time... It's kind of weird in the beginning. It took me, like, two months to be able to call him 'baby.' I didn't want to say his name because we were dating and I couldn't say 'baby,' so I'd just be like, 'Hey! You! Hand me that water over there?'

"It's weird, but it's great. The people around you already know them because you've known them for a long time, so it's just like, Now we kiss and hold hands."

Although their relationship only got off the ground in July, the 'Havana' hitmaker recently admitted she first had feelings for Shawn when they collaborated together on their 2015 hit 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'.

She said: "During 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' I really bonded with him as more than a friend. I think he did, too, but we were both really young, and he was experiencing the pressures of his career.

"I don't think we knew what to do with those feelings. It was this awkward thing where we both liked each other, but we weren't together. It was just weird."

Following their 2015 collaboration, the pair "didn't spend as much time together", until they were reunited earlier this year, when they worked on their track 'Señorita'.

She explained: "Our paths just didn't cross in that way romantically until we started hanging out again and writing. For me, it just brought it back."

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