AceShowbiz - Shawn Mendes keeps himself in good company amid public's scrutiny about his sexuality. The Canadian singer/songwriter has been sharing a warm moment with a male pal and fellow musician, Mike Sabath, after addressing gay rumors.

On Tuesday, October 29, the "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" hitmaker was pictured having a tight embrace with the American artist. The former boyfriend of Camila Cabello looked joyful to be around his friend and was seen helping the New York native with his luggage. While loading the suitcases into a parked vehicle, the two men shared a hug.

Shawn kept it casual in a pair of loose-fitting denim jeans as well as a plain white shirt layered with a plaid jacket which had a fuzzy trim on the neckline to stay warm in the cooler weather. He paired the outfit with black shoes.

As for Mike, he also kept it comfy in a pair of white sweatpants and a short-sleeved yellow shirt. The 26-year-old record producer added a long-sleeved top underneath and also slipped into a pair of brown boots.

Shawn, who was previously romantically linked to Sabrina Carpenter in addition to dating Camila, has several times addressed speculation about his sexuality. In 2020, he said in an interview, "I'm not gay and I'm like, 'What does that mean?' " He frustratingly added, "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."

Recently, he debuted a new song titled "The Mountain", which addressed the rumors. "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 sings on it.

The "Stitches" crooner performed the song at his concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, during which he also spoke to the audiences about the constant speculation about his sexuality. "I was really young when I started. I was 15 years old," he said onstage. "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."

"Since I was really young, there's this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it so long," he continued. "I think it's kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it's so hard to just put into boxes."

Shawn expressed that the constant speculation about his sexuality felt like an intrusion on something very personal. "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," he said.