It was a tale of love trysts exposed through musical quarrels only rivalled by the band Fleetwood Mac.
The world watched as Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter all responded to allegations of heartbreak and cheating through song.
The musical love triangle took the world by storm and launched Rodrigo as a heavyweight on the pop scene.
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Olivia Rodrigo fell head over heels for her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Joshua Bassett.
However, when that relationship came to an abrupt end, Rodrigo channelled her heartache into song-writing, launching a career that sparkled in every corner in the globe, and will see her land in Sydney for her first-ever Australian interview with Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo on Today on September 22.
ASK OLIVIA: Got a question for her? Submit it here before her Today show interview
While the musicians never officially confirmed their romance, ever since Rodrigo dropped the hit Drivers Licence back in 2021, fans have been trying to piece together the pair’s relationship and how fellow Disney star Sabrina Carpenter fit into the equation.
What happened between Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo?
Young Hollywood stars Joshua Bassett, 22, and Olivia Rodrigo, 20, met when they were 18 and 16 respectively.
The pair met when they played love interests in the Disney Plus series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. They portrayed on-again-off-again couple Ricky and Nini and their chemistry immediately led fans to speculate they were dating in real life too, although they never confirmed or denied this.
They only added more fuel to the rumours in March 2020 when Rodrigo shared a cute clip of herself singing about someone with a “brown-eyed grin and messy hair”, which fans suspected was Bassett.
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However, one month later they stopped liking each other’s social media posts and appeared to have split after Bassett released a song about lost love titled Common Sense.
The song is about second chances, with the actor singing, “Common sense says the girl’s not worth my time/ But common sense ain’t common when you come to mind.”
It seems his plea for a second chance fell on deaf ears with Rodrigo sharing a TikTok video of herself listening to breakup tracks while musing over “failed relationships” in August 2020.
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Soon Bassett was singing another tune and raising eyebrows when he was seen grabbing lunch with actress Sabrina Carpenter in LA.
For Halloween, the pair even couple-dressed, rocking Shark Boy and Lava Girl outfits.
In 2021, Bassett officially came out as gay. The singer and actor described Harry Styles as “hot” during an interview and later called the clip his “coming-out video.”
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Bassett later officially addressed the interview on Instagram, writing, “My entire life people have told me my sexuality. People have shamed me for things they know nothing about. I want to say thank you to those of you who stand for love and acceptance.” He continued, “Love who you love shamelessly. It’s ok to still be figuring out who you are. Life’s too short to let ignorance and hatred win. I choose love. 🧡💛💚💙💜”
Bassett further clarified in an interview with GQ that he “wasn’t joking” about being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. “I stood behind every word that I said,” the actor said..
What is Olivia Rodrigo’s song Drivers License about?
Rodrigo’s debut single Drivers License topped the US charts, was number one on the ARIA charts and is close to surpassing two billion streams on Spotify.
At the time of its release, fans believed the song is about the love triangle that seemingly formed between Rodrigo, Bassett and Carpenter – especially since in an earlier version of the track, Rodrigo sings about a “brunette” girl.
“And you’re probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / She’s so much older than me / She’s everything I’m insecure about,” she sings.
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The lyric change caused heads to turn and the pointed reference at the “older” woman also appears to suggest it’s Carpenter, who is 22.
“I got my driver’s license last week / Just like we always talked about / ‘Cause you were so excited for me / To finally drive up to your house / But today I drove through the suburbs / Crying ’cause you weren’t around,” Rodrigo sings.
In an interview with Billboard after the single’s release, Rodrigo remained tight-lipped when asked who inspired her debut single.
“I totally understand people’s curiosity with the specifics of who the song’s about and what it’s about, but to me, that’s really the least important part of the song,” she told the magazine. “It’s resonating with people because of how emotional it is, and I think everything else is not important.”
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In another interview, Rodrigo said she couldn’t possibly have been writing about Carpenter as she did not know her on a personal level.
“I think we’ve met once or twice in passing, but I’ve never had a conversation with her,” she told Radio.com in March. “I don’t think I could write a song that was meaningful or emotional about somebody that I don’t know.”
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But whispers of a love triangle persisted after her debut album, SOUR, which was brimming with breakup anthems, including Deja Vu.
In the track, Rodrigo sings about watching an ex move on with another actress while remembering how they used to sing duets together (she did this with Bassett) and trade jackets (she apparently wore Bassett’s jacket in her Drivers Licence music video).
“Do you call her, almost say my name? ‘Cause let’s be honest, we kinda do sound the same,” Rodrigo sings. “Another actress, I hate to think that I was just your type.”
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And in Traitor, she sings about an ex with the lyrics, “You ran to her the second we called it quits”.
How did Joshua Bassett react to Olivia Rodrigo’s song Drivers License?
After Rodrigo released Drivers Licence on January 8, Bassett hit back with his track Lie, Lie, Lie, which he dropped on January 14. He didn’t hold back in the single either, calling out a person for painting him in a negative light and “acting all so innocent”.
“I know what you say about me. I hope that it makes you happy. You can’t seem to get me off your mind (Get me off your mind). Oh, I know you’re lying through your teeth. You told them the lies that you told me. I’ve had enough of it this time,” he sings in the chorus.
In a separate Instagram Story shared after the single’s release, Bassett said he was inspired to write the song after hearing a friend had been talking about him behind his back.
“I wrote ‘Lie, Lie, Lie’ after I found out a friend had been lying about me behind my back for a long time,” he wrote in a note. “It always sucks to hear that someone you thought you could trust would throw you under the bus when it benefits them.
“It happens to all of us, and I think all you can do is seek out people that build you up rather than tear you down.”
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While Bassett appeared to take Drivers Licence to heart at the time, when Rodrigo released Deja Vu in April, he was singing a different tune. Weeks after her second single dropped, Bassett praised Rodrigo on Instagram Stories.
“SUUUUUUPER late on this but! I love this song so much @oliviarodrigo!!! The world better watch out for the album!!!!!” he wrote.
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More proof Bassett has moved on from the Drivers Licence drama came weeks later when he told ET Canada, “All I will say is, you know, that’s her story to tell. Whatever the song is to her is her thing to tell, so I’ll let her do that.
“But I would say I hope people don’t forget the value that she and Sabrina bring to the world outside of the drama. And I hope people will look at the depth of who they are instead of just the surface-level gossip.”
Are Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter dating?
Bassett and Carpenter have neither confirmed nor denied if they are in a relationship, but it’s clear that the pair are good friends.
Bassett even asked the actress and singer to collaborate with him on a track for the self-titled EP he released in March.
“I sent her a quick message and was like, ‘Hey, I think you’re really awesome and I have this song I think you would sound great on, let me know what you think,’ and she responded like 10 minutes later, gave me her number, and I sent her the song,” he recalled to Brazil news site Febre Teen ahead of the EP’s release.
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“Fortunately, she liked it, so we got together in the studio and it was just a blast to make. I’m really happy with how it all turned out.”
But by February of that year, Bassett dropped the Sabrina Carpenter feature all together.
“I didn’t want my EP to be overshadowed by some other narrative that people were trying to make,” he told Billboard. “I really want the focus to be on the art instead of some of the talk and the chatter.
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“You shouldn’t live to please everybody, but at the same time, there are ways to be sensitive to situations where maybe [the duet] has a better chance at a different time.”
Has Sabrina Carpenter spoken out about the supposed love triangle?
Carpenter appeared to tell her side of the story through music too. Weeks after the release of Rodrigo’s Drivers Licence and Bassett’s Lie, Lie, Lie, Carpenter released her own single titled Skin.
“I’m not asking you to let it go. You been tellin’ your side. So I’ll be tellin’ mine,” Carpenter sings, before belting out the chorus: “You can try. To get under my, under my, under my skin. While he’s on mine. Yeah, all on my, all on my, all on my skin. I wish you knew that еven you. Can’t get under my skin if I don’t let you in.”
But despite the lyric “Maybe you didn’t mean it, maybe blonde was the only rhyme,” Carpenter insists the song wasn’t a “diss track”, nor was it a direct response to Rodrigo’s “magnificent song”.
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“I wasn’t bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it,” Carpenter began in a lengthy Instagram message. “I was at a tipping point in my life for countless reasons. so i was inspired to do what i usually do to cope, write something that i wish i could have told myself in the past.
“People can only get to you if you give them the power to. and a lot of people were trying to get to me. the song isn’t calling out one single person. some lines address a specific situation, while other lines address plenty of other experiences I’ve had this past year.. it also shows that many things have actually gotten under my skin.. and I’m still learning to not give other people so much power over my feelings.”
Similarly, Carpenter would subsequently release the album emails i can’t send which included the track because i liked a boy.
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“Now I’m a homewrecker, I’m a slut / I got death threats filling up semi-trucks / Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice / All because I liked a boy,” the telling lyrics of the song read.
Are Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett still friends?
By the time the second season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series it seemed that Rodrigo and Bassett had put their differences to the side… at least on set.
The series premiered on Disney Plus and both Rodrigo and Bassett appeared cordial enough when they got back into character as Nini and Ricky.
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In the new season, the pair even sing a duet together, titled Even When/The Best Part. Due to the pandemic, they performed the duet separately with the scenes then spliced together in post-production, but Bassett was excited, nonetheless.
“I played guitar when we filmed it and sang along to Olivia’s vocals in my ear while she shot her side separately,” he told Billboard. “I’m stoked to see how it all came together and really think people are gonna love it!”
Olivia Rodrigo officially left her role as Nini during the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season three finale. Due to her explosive career that took off between seasons, Rodrigo only appeared in the first two and final episodes of the third season of the show that launched her to fame.
“This season it’s about trying to give her character a proper send-off while also leaving room for other characters to really step into the fray and step into the spotlight,” showrunner Tim Federle told Entertainment Tonight in July 2022. “Personally, it’s a joy to see Olivia’s music explode in such a big way. It was so fun to have her back and reminisce on the beginning.”