Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please, leave Barry Keoghan alone. It's been nearly two years since the breakup of Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter amidst rumors that he cheated on the Grammy winner. Barry recently addressed the speculation and the subsequent backlash in an April 28 episode of the Friends Keep Secrets podcast.
"I've been avoiding it all," Barry said. "I've stepped away from Instagram and social profiles. I've stopped attending events. I've stopped socializing." While the 33-year-old, who shares a 3-year-old son with ex Alyson Sandro, didn't mention Sabrina by name, he repeatedly referred to an old "narrative" about him, nodding to the backlash that followed their December 2024 breakup.
"There's a narrative that's not true that I've never spoken about," Barry continued. "I just disappeared." Admitting that speculation around any celebrity relationship often "gets amplified," he slammed the way people treated him after his year-long relationship with Sabrina came to an end.
"I'm not asking people to become my fans or like me," he continued. "But I'm asking people to stop assuming and to stop jumping on this narrative and attacking me and dragging me down in any way. It's absolutely disgusting and vile."
Although he alluded to his time with Sabrina—which began in late 2023—he emphasized that he "never" wants to "mention other people or involve them." He has a simple explanation for this.
"Even if it is those people that I was in a relationship with, it's not my place or their place to speak on my or their behalf," he continued. "It's unfair to them. They're also in the relationship. It's both of us out there. I'm very aware of that."
For her part, Sabrina has similarly declined to speak about anything but her songs—and even then, she won't name real names.
"I just wouldn't say," she told CBS Mornings of who her songs are about, noting that for her fans listening to her music, "It's more fun to picture the person in their head than the person I picture in my head."
