Sabrina Carpenter has a message for boys in her new song, “Manchild.”
Carpenter, 26, dropped her latest single on Thursday, June 5. In the pop song, Carpenter talks about dealing with a man she doesn’t consider to be all that bright.
“You said your phone was broken, just forgot to charge it / Whole outfit you’re wearing, God, I hope it’s ironic / Did you just say you’re finished? Didn’t know we started / It’s all just so familiar, baby, what do you call it? / Stupid, or is it, slow? /Maybe it’s useless, but there’s a cuter word for it, I know,” Carpenter sings in the opening verse.
In the chorus, Carpenter confesses she has the worst luck when it comes to her love life.
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“Manchild, why you always come a-runnin’ to me? / F*** my life, won’t you let an insane woman be? / Never heard of self-care / Half your brain just ain’t there / Manchild, why you always come a-runnin’, takin’ all my lovin’ from me?” she belts.
Before releasing the song, Carpenter sent a newsletter to her fans on Tuesday, June 3, which included a little tease.
“Oh boy … this is gonna be fun,” she wrote at the time (which, it turns out, is how she opens the track).
The same day, Carpenter took to social media to announce the song.
“This one’s about you!!” she wrote via Instagram. “‘Manchild’ is out this Thursday 6/5 8pm EST
.”
The announcement also included imagery of Carpenter wearing cut off jean shorts and a white long sleeve button up expertly tied to show off her torso. In the snap, the singer stood in the middle of the desert attempting to hitchhike.
Before the release of “Manchild,” many fans theorized the track would be about Carpenter’s ex-boyfriend Barry Keoghan. The pair sparked romance rumors in late 2023 and confirmed their relationship the following year. Keoghan, 32, appeared in Carpenter’s music video for her song “Please Please Please.” Their characters fell in love while serving time behind bars.
“I liked the idea of falling in love with a convict and being shocked and embarrassed every time he commits crimes,” the singer said of the video’s inspiration to Vogue in June 2024. “I was sooo lucky to get Barry Keoghan in the video cause he is just magic on screen.”
Us Weekly confirmed in December 2024 that Carpenter and Keoghan called it quits after dating for nearly a year.
“It’s been challenging for their relationship since she started going on tour and has been gone a lot,” a source told Us at the time of what went wrong for the couple. “Their schedules were not aligning. All the time spent apart it was hard to maintain a relationship amid her career exploding.”
After news of their split broke, Keoghan deleted his Instagram account.
Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter’s Relationship Timeline
“I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond to,” he wrote in an X statement at the time. “I have to respond now because it’s getting to a place where too many lines are being crossed.”
Keoghan explained that he ultimately decided to deactivate his account so he could focus on his “family” and “work.” The Salburn actor is father to son Brando, 2, whom he welcomed during a previous relationship.
“Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine, dragging my character and everything I worked extremely hard for and stand for,” he concluded.
