Singer Olivia Rodrigo has achieved massive success and the attention of the critics, as well as the audience since her debut album ‘Sour’, dropped last year. It became an instant talk of the town because her music and songs were based on her real-life experiences and that includes her relationship with singer and co-star Joshua Bassett.
But now, the reports suggest that Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett are returning for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season three where she plays Nini and Joshua plays Ricky, even though Joshua Bassett revealed some time ago that they haven’t spoken to each other over a year even though he has tried to get in touch with her. But there’s more to the story than just two exes meeting and working on a series together.
Olivia Rodrigo’s famous and successful song ‘Driver’s License’ was not only loved by the audience but they also speculated that the song was somewhere about Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter. (Yeah a love triangle!) Joshua Bassett dated Olivia Rodrigo before the former moved on and started dating Sabrina Carpenter. Olivia’s song’s lyrics said, “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”, referencing Sabrina Carpenter. She told Billboard in January 2021, “I totally understand people’s curiosity with the specifics of who the song’s about and what it’s about, but to me, that’s really the least important part of the song. It’s resonating with people because of how emotional it is, and I think everything else is not important.”
Talking about return on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series for season three, Olivia Rodrigo shared with The Los Angeles Times that she is committed to her work. She also mentioned, “I never take a break from music. When I was shooting season 2 of [High School Musical], I wrote, like, five of the songs on my album. So, honestly, I’m probably gonna be more productive. But who knows? I’ve only been doing this for a year. I’ve got a lot left to figure out.”
Joshua Bassett also spoke to GQ explaining his side of the story and said, “I would see TikToks with like 50 million views and 10 million likes saying, ‘If I ever see that kid on the street, I’m going to f—king kill him. It’s hard to see that and then be living in New York and walking down the street. I got a protector screen on my phone so people can’t look at it when I’m at a coffee shop. There are certain people who I can’t hang out with in public because they’re too loud.” The singer also released his side of the story with songs, ‘Crises’, ‘Secret’, and ‘Set Me Free. Explaining the delay in the release of the songs, Joshua said, “I’m glad that it’s taken this long. I finally found the courage to speak up for myself.”
Joshua Bassett also addressed the love triangle by mentioning, “People don’t know anything they’re talking about. The hardest thing has been biting my tongue, in a lot of ways, but the reality is it’s kind of like a lost cause trying to talk about any of that stuff, and I refuse to feed into any of the bulls—, so I just don’t. [Everyone] is asking me about Sabrina and Olivia. Why don’t we focus on these women for who they are? Let’s focus on the art that they’re making and how great they are instead of their relationship to a boy.”
Although Joshua Bassett did drop a song ‘Lie Lie Lie', which seemed like reacting to Olivia’s song whereas Sabrina Carpenter also released a song titled, ‘Skin’, which is also about the alleged feud between her and Olivia over Joshua. Hours later, Olivia posted a video of herself singing Taylor Swift’s song ‘Ready for it?’.
In January 2021, Sabrina shut down the rumors of Skin being a ‘diss track’ and said, ['Skin'] isn’t calling out one single person. Some lines address a specific situation, while other lines address plenty of other experiences I’ve had this past year.. it also shows that many things have actually gotten under my skin.. and I’m still learning to not give other people so much power over my feelings." She also called ‘Driver’s License’, a magnificent song.
In February 2021, Sabrina spoke to Radio.com and denied that the blonde lyrics in her song was a reference to Olivia’s song and said, "It's such a struggle not to be able to control the narrative and know that whether you say something or whether you don't say something, people are gonna be mad at you either way. It's really just one of those things where you have to kind of to do for yourself at the end of the day and do it in the hopes that someone can find inspiration in the message. ... At the end of the day, the more I dance around the subject, the less people kind of understand where I'm coming from. Not that the goal is to get them to understand, because I don't think at the end of the day you're ever going to accomplish that."
Sabrina finally said, “There's very obviously gravity in the words that we put out people feel the need to always insert their opinions. Sometimes it's easier to shut your mouth than other times ... And this time I wrote a song and I'm very proud of it, and I'm glad that people are receiving it well." In March 2021, during an interview, Olivia revealed that she does not know Sabrina Carpenter at all. She said, “I think we’ve met once or twice in passing, but I’ve never had a conversation with her. I don’t think I could write a song that was meaningful or emotional about somebody that I don’t know.”
Talking about the season three return, Joshua said, “I am not. I’m very excited. I think we have a really, really awesome season lined up, and I think, you know, it’s gonna be truly a blast. I think we have a lot of really great episodes lined up, and it’s gonna be, I think, the most fun one yet, in terms of writing and moral and all that stuff. I’m really excited.”
Neither the romance between Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett was never publicly accepted nor the romance between Sabrina Carpenter and Joshua Bassett has been accepted publicly but according to reports, both romances existed. Joshua Bassett has reportedly unfollowed Olivia Rodrigo on Instagram!