Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo — the two women who've been pitted against each other since the latter released that song; you know, the one about the boy and the driver's license?

For years, fans have speculated about the state of their relationship. Are they enemies? Frenemies? Secret besties?

The women, who are both dominating the music industry right now, have stayed mostly silent about the rumours. Until now.

Watch: Sabrina Carpenter's performance on SNL 2025. Post continues after video.

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Sabrina Carpenter's performance on SNL 2025

Are Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter friends?

Well, there's definitely no bad blood between them!

In a recent profile for Vogue, Olivia Rodrigo had nothing but praise for Sabrina.

"I think she's great. I'm so happy for all of her success too," she told the publication. "I love the album she's put out."

When the interviewer suggested the singer seemed "tense" about the topic, Olivia explained she was just simply worried about people twisting her words.

"It's all love, though. I've talked to her many times."

Sabrina Carpenter won her first Grammy in 2025. Image: Getty.

Indeed, just last year, the pair were spotted having a brief chat at the 2025 Grammys.

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment captured on camera inside the Grammys venue, Olivia actually left her seat (and her then-boyfriend, Louis Partridge) to make her way over to Sabrina's table.

Olivia was spotted kneeling down next to Sabrina's chair for a proper chat — the kind where you have to get close because the music's too loud, and you're trying not to yell.

Taylor Swift could also be seen in the footage. This is significant in itself, because Taylor and Olivia allegedly had their own drama years ago over songwriting credits. When Taylor asked Sabrina to be the opening act on The Eras Tour, people immediately assumed she had taken a side.

But! It seems all is well in the land of pop girlies.

Olivia attended the 2025 Grammys with her then-boyfriend, Louis Partridge. Image: Getty.

In case you missed the drama between Olivia and Sabrina — or just want to take a walk down memory lane — let us explain the one-time love triangle of the decade, which dominated headlines, sparked endless TikTok theories, and had fans choosing sides back in 2021.

How the love-triangle all started.

Let's cast our minds back to 2019.

Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett were co-stars on the ludicrously titled Disney+ original show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. They played ex-couple Nini and Ricky.

The pair had plenty of on-screen chemistry and were clearly friends IRL, which led fans of the show to speculate that they were dating. As it turns out, yes. They were. Emphasis on the past tense, here!

They broke up, and soon enough, Joshua began dating another Disney star — none other than Sabrina Carpenter — which you'll soon see is very important information.

This is them. Image: Getty.

A quick rundown on Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett's relationship.

The timeline of this relationship is a bit sketchy, because they didn't make their relationship public, but we can make educated guesses.

The first season of HSMTMTS (seriously, WTF) filmed in the first half of 2019, and in March 2020, Olivia shared parts of a love song she said she'd written about someone with a "brown-eyed grin" and messy hair.

Ahem:

By May 2020, fans noticed Olivia and Joshua stopped liking each other's Instagram posts. In June, Joshua was seen with Sabrina for the first time.

In July, Olivia posted about getting her driver's licence. Notably, she had mentioned in an interview that Joshua had taught her to drive in a parking lot.

Not long after, she posted an early version of her song 'Drivers License' — which you definitely heard at the time — on Instagram.

That same month, Sabrina appeared (secretly) in one of Joshua's music videos.

Olivia then posted a TikTok featuring a song from HSMTMTS (honestly can't deal with this show's name) where her character sings about Joshua's character. She captioned the video: "And that's on failed relationships".

Yikes.

So by mid/late 2020, Olivia and Joshua had broken up, and he'd begun dating Sabrina.

They have never really confirmed it, but were spotted out and about and made TikToks together. I'm guessing that's how Gen Z make relationship announcements.

This is her. Image: Getty.

Enter: a collection of very dramatic songs.

We haven't seen young adult relationship drama play out in song like this since the Jonas Brothers dated all of 2007/2008's Disney and Disney-adjacent stars, sparking years' worth of breakup bangers.

On January 4 2021, Olivia announced the release of her debut single, 'Drivers License'.

Literally an hour later, Joshua announced his new single called 'Lie Lie Lie'.

It was very petty, and everyone loved it.

'Driver's License' was released on January 8, and its lyrics only added fuel to this fire.

In the song, Olivia laments the end of her relationship as she drives through the streets after getting her license.

You've heard this 8,000 times on the radio, but to recap, she sings:

"And you're probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / She's so much older than me / She's everything I'm insecure about" and ummmmm, Sabrina is blonde and four years older than her.

Right. Well, that was the first domino.

Soon after, more fell. Joshua's song 'Lie Lie Lie' was released, but interestingly, he quickly shut down speculation that it was a response to Olivia.

"I wrote 'Lie, Lie, Lie' after I found out a friend had been lying about me behind my back for a long time," he wrote on Instagram.

"It always hurts to hear that someone you thought you could trust would throw you under the bus when it benefits them. It happens to all of us, and I think all you can do is seek out people that build you up rather than tear you down."

Later in January, Sabrina released her own song, 'Skin', that made it... quite obvious she was the "blonde girl" in Olivia's song with the lyrics: "Maybe you didn't mean it / Maybe blonde was the only rhyme".

Olivia and Joshua reunited in 2022. Image: Getty.

Buuuut on Instagram, she also said she wasn't keen on the drama.

"I wasn't bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it. I was at a tipping point in my life for countless reasons. So I was inspired to do what I usually do to cope, write something that I wish I could have told myself in the past." She said "some lines address a specific situation" while others do not.

Olivia's second single 'Deja Vu' also addressed Joshua, and she sang about how all the things he does in his current relationship (like singing 'Uptown Girl' by Billy Joel) are things she taught him. Eek.

Throughout it all, the trio spent a lot of time in interviews addressing the drama, or mostly... refusing to address it.

But then, in April that year, Joshua decided to make a statement. No not a literal one, but one that would make his stance clear.

The singer praised Olivia's song 'Deja Vu' on his Instagram stories, writing: "SUUUUUUPER late on this but ! i love this song so much @oliviarodrigo !!!"

He added: "the world better watch out for the album !!!!!".

A year later, Olivia and Joshua even posed together at the season three premiere of HSMTMTS.

If there was any beef, it's clearly been squashed. And it's all love now.

This article was originally published on January 12, 2021, and has since been updated.

Feature Image: Getty.