Sabrina Carpenter spent her year headlining arenas and handcuffing celebrities onstage with pink fuzzy cuffs. But her love life generated more headlines than most people’s entire careers.
Barry Keoghan was in her music video. Joe Keery was “arrested” in front of thousands of people at a music festival. A viral tweet in May 2026 said they were confirmed to be dating.
None of that last sentence is as straightforward as it sounds.
Here is every relationship, every rumor, what Carpenter has actually said about dating, and where things genuinely stand now.
Is Sabrina Carpenter Single Right Now?
The short and sweet answer is yes, most likely.
Sabrina Carpenter confirmed she was single in a February 2025 interview, following her December 2024 split from Barry Keoghan.
A source said that around the same time: “Sabrina is taking some time to focus on herself.” She spent the rest of 2025 finishing her Short n’ Sweet Tour and working on music.
The longer answer involves Joe Keery.
In May 2026, sources published a report claiming they had confirmed they were dating. Neither Carpenter nor Keery had made any statement. No representative for either had confirmed anything.
So the accurate read as of now: Sabrina Carpenter is single. There is a rumored situation with Joe Kerry that has not been confirmed by anyone who would know.
What the Joe Keery Rumors Are Actually Based On
Joe Keery, 34, known for Stranger Things and his music project Djo, became the center of a viral moment during Carpenter’s Austin City Limits set.
Keery has a viral 2022 single, End of Beginning, with over 350 million streams. He and Carpenter move in overlapping circles, making the interaction noteworthy.
During Carpenter’s recurring “Juno” segment, where she handcuffs a special guest mid-song, Keery raised his wrists before she even finished the setup.
Carpenter laughed, calling him “the one,” and changed the lyric from “baby” to “Joe” mid-performance. The clip spread rapidly online.
Keery later clarified in a radio interview that the moment was “quite sensitive,” joking he felt “in jail all week,” but confirmed it was fun and coordinated through mutual friends.
The story continued at the SNL afterparty on January 17, 2026, celebrating Finn Wolfhard’s hosting debut.
Both attended independently, and no photos suggest a romantic connection, though their shared social circles keep the speculation alive.
The honest read: Keery and Carpenter share genuine chemistry and enough mutual presence to spark conversation, but there is no official confirmation of a relationship.
The viral moment was a scripted, playful interaction amplified by social media.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Full Dating History
A look at Sabrina Carpenter’s confirmed relationships, rumored links, and the timeline of her dating history over the years.
1. Bradley Steven Perry (2014 – 2015)
Carpenter’s first public relationship started on the set of Girl Meets World.
Bradley Steven Perry, a fellow Disney Channel actor, asked her out by putting a note inside a bottle.
She told J-14 magazine at the time: “It was like the pirate movies; they put notes in bottles and sent them across the ocean. It was cute.”
They dated for about a year and split on good terms.
Perry spoke about her on his podcast The Sit and Chat years later: “My first girlfriend’s doin’ way better than anybody, mostly in the world, I would say. She’s way too good for this podcast.”
2. Joshua Bassett (2020)
Carpenter and singer-actor Joshua Bassett were linked in the summer of 2020, following his split from Olivia Rodrigo.
They were first spotted together at a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles in June 2020, and wore matching Halloween costumes that October.
Rodrigo released “Driver’s License” in January 2021, which was widely interpreted as about Bassett moving on with Carpenter. The song broke streaming records.
Carpenter responded with “Skin” the same month, framing it as a response to being defined by someone else’s narrative.
Bassett confirmed he was single in a 2021 GQ interview. Neither he nor Carpenter ever publicly confirmed the relationship directly.
3. Shawn Mendes (2023)
Sabrina and Shawn Mendes were spotted at Miley Cyrus’s release party in 2023, and the speculation started immediately. Neither confirmed it.
The rumor gained traction when Carpenter released “Taste”, with a lyric addressed to an “ex-lover’s new girl” that many fans interpreted as being about Mendes and Camila after he reportedly got back together with Cabello.
Carpenter has never named anyone in connection with the song.
4. Barry Keoghan (2023–2024)
Carpenter and Barry first met at Givenchy’s Summer 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week in September 2023.
By December, they were photographed on a date night in Los Angeles, and they made their public debut at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in March 2024.
They appeared together on the Met Gala red carpet, the same year Keoghan starred as Carpenter’s boyfriend in her hit Please Please Please music video, perfectly reacting to lyrics about him, including references to Barry.
The couple quietly split in December 2024, with sources citing a focus on careers.
In 2026, Carpenter’s TikTok posts and Keoghan’s Paris Fashion Week heart-shaped brooch sparked speculation of lingering feelings, though neither publicly commented.
What Sabrina Carpenter Has Said About Dating
Image Source: ELLE
Most coverage of her relationships lists names and dates without including what she has actually said. Here is her own framing.
To Cosmopolitan, she said: “A lot of it, for me, has been fate. I know that’s super broad, but I don’t actively look for relationships.”
She described her dating life as “fun” and “messy” in the same interview.
On Apple Music with Zane Lowe, explaining the album title Short n’ Sweet: “I thought about some of these relationships and how some of them were the shortest I’ve ever had, and they affected me the most.”
She was clear that the title was not about her height.
At the Ally Coalition Talent Show, introducing “Slim Pickins “: “It’s sort of about the saying when they say there’s plenty of fish in the sea and how that’s a big fat lie. It’s not so pessimistic, but this song sure is.”
The pattern across all of these is that she is open about the emotional truth of relationships without naming people. She lets the music carry the specifics and keeps the names out of interviews.
How Sabrina’s Music Connects to Her Relationships
This is the part fans actually want to know, and it is rarely covered in one place.
- “Skin” (2021): Written directly in response to the “driver’s license” situation. Carpenter’s answer to being characterized as the other woman. She framed it as refusing to be defined by someone else’s version of events.
- “Taste” (2023): Addressed to “an ex-lover’s new girl.” Widely read as being about Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. The lyrics are specific enough that fans have been confident for two years.
- “Please Please Please” (2024): The music video cast Keoghan as a charming disaster of a boyfriend. It became one of her biggest commercial hits and felt like the most openly autobiographical video of her career.
- “Manchild” (2025): Released after the Keoghan split. Fans and critics widely read it as processing the end of that relationship. Carpenter has not confirmed the subject.
Conclusion
As of now, Sabrina Carpenter is single.
The Joe Kerry situation is real in the sense that they have mutual friends, have been in the same rooms, and generated one of the more viral festival moments of 2025.
It is not real in the sense that either of them has confirmed anything.
What is confirmed: she is 26, she just finished one of the biggest tours of the year, and her last statement about her love life was a TikTok repost on New Year’s Day that used her own song to say she was not going back to her ex.
That is not someone who seems particularly eager to rush into the next chapter.
Do you think Sabrina Carpenter and Joe Keery are actually dating, or is the internet reading too much into a scripted festival moment? Tell us in the comments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Sabrina Carpenter Date Dylan O’Brien?
Dylan O’Brien and Sabrina Carpenter were briefly linked in 2022 by tabloids and fan speculation. Neither confirmed the relationship, which faded without public statements and remains considered a rumored connection.
Are Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo Friends Now?
Neither has publicly confirmed their friendship. After early 2021, when perceived conflict during the driver’s license era arose, both moved on professionally, appearing relaxed at events but without an official public reconciliation.
What is Sabrina Carpenter’s Relationship with Taylor Swift?
Carpenter opened for Swift’s Eras Tour in 2024. They share professional closeness and genuine friendship, with Swift supporting Carpenter’s career growth, though neither has formally described the nature of their relationship.
Has Sabrina Carpenter Ever Been Engaged?
No. Carpenter has never been engaged. None of her public relationships progressed to engagement, and as of 2026, she is 26 years old and focused on her career.
