Sabrina Carpenter has been dating Oscar-nominated actor Barry Keoghan for at least six months, even casting him as her leading man in her Please Please Please music video, but she doesn’t feel comfortable publicly referring to him as her boyfriend.

‘How do I skirt around this question?’ the 25-year-old pop star asked Rolling Stone on Monday.

‘The [dating] pool is the pool, and when you meet people that feel authentic and are so brilliant and amazing in every way, that’s what you do. Obviously, I write songs about exactly how I feel, so I guess I can’t be so surprised that people are interested in who and what those songs are about. That’s something that comes with the territory.’

Sabrina coyly confirmed her new single was inspired by the 31-year-old Irishman in the comments of his June 6th Instagram post announcing the video where she quoted her own lyric: ‘I heard that you’re an actor!’

In the Bardia Zeinali-directed music video, Carpenter plays the gangster moll to Keoghan’s criminal and one scene was specifically designed to showcase Barry’s stunt-fighting abilities.

Sabrina Carpenter has been dating Oscar-nominated actor Barry Keoghan for at least six months, even casting him as her leading man in her Please Please Please music video, but she doesn’t feel comfortable publicly referring to him as her boyfriend

The Pennsylvania-born blonde – who taught herself how to play piano and guitar with YouTube tutorials – sang: ‘I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy / Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight / I tell them it’s just your culture and everyone rolls their eyes.’

Sabrina and Keoghan looked every bit the intimate couple in the behind-the-scenes featurette for Please Please Please that she unveiled on YouTube last Friday.

Carpenter and The Masters of the Air action star – who made their official red carpet debut as a couple at the Met Gala on May 6 – first crossed paths at the Givenchy runway presentation during Paris Fashion Week on September 28 before being spotted on a date in Brentwood on December 3.

Barry fathered 22-month-old son Brando during his two-year relationship with dental nurse Alyson Kierans, which ended in mid-2023.

The Espresso hitmaker – who gets 71.9M monthly listeners on Spotify – scored a major career boost serving opening duties for 14-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Mexico, South America, Australia, and Singapore.

‘I hold her to such a different echelon. I could never compare my life, my career, my trajectory to anything close to what she’s done,’ Sabrina gushed.

‘We’re very, very verbal with each other about our mutual love and admiration…She played me [her The Tortured Poets Department Studio song] But Daddy, I Love Him before it came out, and that’s also one of my favorites.’

The 34-year-old pop star’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff just so happened to produce half of Carpenter’s sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet – dropping August 23 – including Please Please Please.

Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan arrive at 2024 Met Gala

The 25-year-old pop star asked Rolling Stone on Monday: ‘How do I skirt around this question?’ (pictured March 10)

She continued: ‘The [dating] pool is the pool, and when you meet people that feel authentic and are so brilliant and amazing in every way, that’s what you do. Obviously, I write songs about exactly how I feel, so I guess I can’t be so surprised that people are interested in who and what those songs are about. That’s something that comes with the territory’

Sabrina coyly confirmed her new single was inspired by the 31-year-old Irishman in the comments of his June 6th Instagram post announcing the video where she quoted her own lyric: ‘I heard that you’re an actor!’

In the Bardia Zeinali-directed (M) music video, Carpenter plays the gangster moll to Keoghan’s criminal and one scene was specifically designed to showcase Barry’s stunt-fighting abilities

The Pennsylvania-born blonde sang: ‘I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy / Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight / I tell them it’s just your culture and everyone rolls their eyes’

Sabrina and Keoghan looked every bit the intimate couple in the behind-the-scenes featurette for Please Please Please that she unveiled on YouTube last Friday

Carpenter and The Masters of the Air action star – who made their official red carpet debut as a couple at the Met Gala on May 6 (pictured) – first crossed paths at the Givenchy runway presentation during Paris Fashion Week on September 28 before being spotted on a date in Brentwood on December 3

Barry fathered 22-month-old son Brando during his two-year relationship with dental nurse Alyson Kierans, which ended in mid-2023 (pictured September 16)

The Espresso hitmaker scored a major career boost serving opening duties for 14-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Mexico, South America, Australia, and Singapore (pictured February 23)

Sabrina gushed: ‘I hold her to such a different echelon. I could never compare my life, my career, my trajectory to anything close to what she’s done’

She added: ‘We’re very, very verbal with each other about our mutual love and admiration…She played me [her The Tortured Poets Department Studio song] But Daddy, I Love Him before it came out, and that’s also one of my favorites’ (pictured September 12)

The 34-year-old pop star’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff just so happened to produce half of Carpenter’s sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet – dropping August 23 – including Please Please Please

On April 1, the former Disney Channel star modeled the Stretch Lace campaign for Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand SKIMS, which outraged Swifties considering their ongoing feud which began way back in 2016

Sabrina explained: ‘I’ve been very, very communicative with [Taylor] about that situation, and I just love her so much and support her till the end. So it was no weirdness for me, but I know people will just say things because that’s all they have time to do’ (Taylor and Kim pictured in 2015)

Sabrina Carpenter looks sultry in new ad campaign for SKIMS

On April 1, the former Disney Channel star modeled the Stretch Lace campaign for Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand SKIMS, which outraged Swifties considering their ongoing feud which began way back in 2016.

‘As much as people want to believe you’re tuned into every little thing, I’m not because I’m constantly working. In that scenario, I’ve been very, very communicative with [Taylor] about that situation, and I just love her so much and support her till the end,’ Sabrina explained.

‘So it was no weirdness for me, but I know people will just say things because that’s all they have time to do.’