At the beginning of last year, around mid-January, there were speculations that Canadian pop star Tate McRae and Australian singer The Kid Laroi had sparked a romance. They were spotted on a dinner date not long after an Instagram Story McRae had posted with her wearing Laroi’s shirt had started the dating rumors. Later that year, in April, Laroi confirmed fans’ speculation while at a concert in Dublin, Ireland, telling the crowd that his girlfriend, McRae, was backstage during the performance.

Their public romance started hot and heavy, with the pair constantly being photographed by the paparazzi out and about on dates and at public events like a Super Bowl party. They even did a duet performance at one of McRae’s concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York. Like all celebrity couples, there was a lot of online discourse on the couple, with people even bringing up McRae’s past relationships in comparison to Laroi, but the couple was seemingly strong through it all, not letting it affect their relationship.

In February of this year, McRae dropped her third studio album, “So Close to What,” which was an instant hit, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts the week of its release. The album featured hits like “It’s ok I’m ok” and “Purple Lace Bra,” which also topped the charts upon release. The album also featured a song called “I know love,” which featured Laroi and was seemingly a song about their relationship and how they knew their love was real even before they were together and just friends. The song was a hit amongst fans and was so well-received because the fans finally got to see McRae in love and so publicly at that. Other songs on the album were seemingly about Laroi as well, such as “Miss Possessive” and “2 Hands”. 

A few months later, in July, only five months after the album was released, breakup rumors started to spread like wildfire across the internet. Fans of McRae and Laroi had not seen the pair out and about as they have been throughout their relationship. Much of this speculation of a breakup came from the infamous celebrity gossip site, DeuxMoi, which claimed to have seen Laroi out in Los Angeles with another woman. While this supposed sighting had happened, McRae was celebrating her birthday while on the European leg of her world tour, noticeably without Laroi, who had been very public about her birthday celebration and his love for her the year prior.

In late July, Laroi seemingly confirmed the breakup rumors when there were fake lyrics that someone was trying to pass off as a song that Laroi was going to drop as a diss to now ex McRae.

“Can we please have these [the lyrics] taken down. Tate and I are on good terms,” said Laroi in a text chain he posted on X between him and what seemed to be his representatives. 

After Laroi squashed any rumor that the breakup may have been messy or drama-filled, the summer quieted down, and both singers continued their respective careers. However, in September, while on tour for her new album, McRae dropped a brand new song called “Tit for Tat,” which was seemingly a diss on Laroi and their breakup back in July.  The song describes how McRae thought everything was cool until she got confirmation that the lyrics that were circulating a few months back were, in fact, real, and Laroi had planned on dropping a diss on McRae.

“Let’s go song for song, let’s go back to back,” said McRae in a lyric in her new song, insinuating that she and Laroi can keep releasing songs back to back on this breakup, and she will go tit for tat. 

In the end, there was never an official statement from either singer on what actually went down. There can only be speculation about what both singers have done since the breakup rumors were started. Hopefully, the drama dies down soon, and a banger album from McRae gets put out soon.

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