‘This one’s about you!!’: Is Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Manchild’ about ex Barry Keoghan?

After the absolute frenzy that she kicked up in her stilettos the beach with Espresso last summer, everyone’s waiting with baited breath to see Sabrina Carpenter, potentially reign big on the charts, and our playls, this summer. Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild about ex Barry Keoghan? Earlier this week, she shared a cryptic soft launch of sorts for what many speculated would be her next single, Manchild. A few hours later she dropped a proper hard launch, this time making it clear that the song is in fact, about someone. And obviously, all fingers point to her ex, Barry Keoghan. Rumours of romantic involvement began in late 2023, with Sabrina and Barry going public in February 2024. Reports suggest they properly broke up around December last year. When Please Please Please had released, music video and all, as soon as the hook caught on, the internet got down to figuring out, who, if anybody was the IRL inspiration behind the peppiest heartbreak song of the year (though the chicness definitely takes over). And the lyrics, vibes, not to mention Barry so graciously starring in the MV himself, pointed towards him being the core inspiration —though of course this wasn’t really confirmed. Nevertheless, with Sabrina’s caption to the hard launch post reading “this one’s about you!!” — add to this the fact that she hasn’t really been majorly linked with anyone post-Barry — kinda makes it obvious? The comment section ATE the way, when it came to first reactions: Katy Perry for one wrote, “sounds straight to the point, here for it 🎯” with another comment reading, “he didn’t len when you wrote please please please, so he deserves this song 😍”. And the all-round excitement is of course through the roof: Spotify commented, “sabrina said y’all need another song of the summer?” with the Recording Academy quipping, “from now on all men must first speak to us before they can speak to our GRAMMY-winning sabrina 😤” and Walmart adding, “NOW we can begin summer”. Some more reactions mirroring the vibe went: “SABRINA SUMMER IS HERE 🤩”, “Oh we’re sat” and “She’s a busy woman!!!!! ✨💖”. Manchild will be out tomorrow. Till then, we always have Short n’ Sweet!