Camila Cabello had "drifted" from Shawn Mendes before recording 'Senorita'.

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes

The 22-year-old singer started dating Shawn, 21, after they reconnected while working on the single together this year but Camila admits that the pair - who previously recorded 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' together in 2015 - had grown apart in the last few years.

She told E! News: "I love him with all my heart and always have. We've known each other for a really long time... We've always been there for each other. I think we drifted because we weren't hanging out as much. It was fun to be able to reconnect and hang out again."

Camila also revealed that being in love makes her more creative.

The star - who split from relationship coach Matthew Hussey in June just before she started dating Shawn - said: "I think falling in love is the ultimate artistic inspiration because it opens you up.

"Falling in love, for me, just brings out all of my vulnerabilities. All these things show up for me and it just makes you open. When I am in love I listen to songs and I just cry. I cry easier. That must mean that I'm more open and more in touch with my emotions. All the spectrum of emotions... joy, fear, all of it."

Camila recently said she plans to "fall" for Shawn "like nobody is watching".

She said: "I don't know; people can say whatever they want to say. They can speculate, but at the same time, we are going to live our own lives, enjoy it, and fall for each other like nobody is watching. That is how I want to live. I never want to open the door for people to feel like they are involved. Like I said, I want it to be mine and [his]. That's why I'm so tight-lipped about it: because I want to protect it ...

"Love is the most sacred, precious thing to me. I want to always feel like my love is between me and that person, and never belonging to anyone else. As much as I love my fans, and as much as I love people, I like to live my life as normally as possible. In a relationship, it makes me feel uncomfortable to invite everyone in on that."

Tagged in