Clay Aiken bizarrely questions Shawn Mendes' sexuality during an interview

American Idol alum Clay Aiken randomly brought up Shawn Mendes' sexuality during an interview with Variety while promoting his new Christmas album. 

While kicking off his chat with reporter, Rebecca Rubin, the 45-year-old singer asked if Mendes had 'come out today.'

'Have you seen this video on his Instagram? I didn’t finish watching it because I looked at the time and I was like, “Oh God, I gotta get on the computer.” So I don’t know if he really did,' the Invisible hitmaker asked Rubin. 

Before finishing his sentence, Aiken, who came out as gay in 2008 after years of speculation, clarified that he 'shouldn’t out him if he didn’t.' 

When asked how he felt about people speculating about Mendes' sexuality, Aiken admitted he was surprised people were still publicly commenting on something so  intrusive to the star.

'I feel like no one has speculated about shit since 2000 — since I went through that c**p,' the father-of-one told the outlet. 'I joke that after I came out publicly, it stopped being a story.' 

He continued: 'I don’t know that anybody has had press in that way, like tabloid stories or questions by Diane Sawyer.' 

Aiken theorized that line of public speculation in the media began to die down after 'people got bored' of it. 

'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ended in 2011 so America came to terms with us gays a little better,' he said. 'We have insisted our media become more empathetic. Press can’t invade in the way they used to be able to invade. And that’s great.' 

Aiken, then, acknowledged he did not want to 'derail this' or add to the list of people speculating about Mendes but that something 'came up' on his 'screen right before' they began the interview. 

His remarks were most likely in reference to footage shared from the intimate moment that Mendes addressed his love life during his concert in Denver last month.

While addressing his fans, the performer stated: 'There's this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it so long,' he added, saying it was 'kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it's so hard to just put into boxes.' 

'The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I'm just figuring it out like everyone.'

'It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it.'

'And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that. And I'm trying to be really brave and just allow myself to be a human and feel things. And that's all I really want to say about that for now.'

Mendes also shared: 'I was really young when I started. I was 15 years old. The truth is that I didn't get to do a lot of 15-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at 15.'

The artist also sings about his sexuality on his new song, The Mountain. 

The lyrics to the song include the line: 'You can say I'm too young/You can say I'm too old/You can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mold.' 

He previously discussed speculation about his sexuality in a 2018 Rolling Stone interview.

'I thought, "You f*****g guys are so lucky I'm not actually gay and terrified of coming out,' he said at the time.

'That's something that kills people. That's how sensitive it is. Do you like the songs? Do you like me? Who cares if I'm gay?'

He also spoke about feeling the pressure to be seen out with women in order to prove he was 'not gay.'

'In the back of my heart, I feel like I need to go be seen with someone — like a girl — in public, to prove to people that I’m not gay. Even though in my heart I know that it’s not a bad thing. There’s still a piece of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me.'

In 2019, Shawn said whispers about his sexuality were 'hurtful' in an interview with The Guardian.

The superstar addressed ongoing rumors about his sexuality once more in 2020, on the Dax Shepard podcast.

 'It was so, so frustrating for me because there were some people in my life that I was very very close to, who were gay and in the closet,' he shared.

'And I felt like this real anger for those people. It’s such a tricky thing. You want to say, "I’m not gay but it’d be fine if I was gay — but also there’s nothing wrong with being gay but I’m not." You don’t really know how to respond to the situation.'

'Everyone’s been calling me gay since I was 15 years old. I’m not gay and I’m like, "What does that mean?" I had these problems with the way my voice sounded. I’m like, "How do I sit?" I’m always first to cross my legs and sit with a position of this feminine style and I really suffered with that s**t.'

He also flatly denied that he was gay in a Snapchat message to his fans in 2016, while urging them to concentrate on his work.

'So I don't usually do this and bring up problems, but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews, and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying that I gave them a "gay vibe,"' he said.

'First of all, I'm not gay. Second of all, it shouldn't make a difference if I was or if I wasn't. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality.'

Although he has been the object of wild speculation about his sexuality, Shawn has only ever publicly dated women, such as fellow singers Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter.

He also previously sparked romance rumors with his chiropractor, Dr. Jocelyne Miranda, 52, last year.

Shawn was also linked to Big Brother UK's Charlie Travers in 2023.