Singers Julia Michaels and JP Saxe have reportedly called it quits. The two musicians dated for about three years and sparked breakup rumors after they recently shared clips of unreleased songs with fans that hinted at relationship troubles. Saxe and Michaels worked together on the 2019 single “If the World Was Ending,” which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2021 Grammys.
Multiple sources told PEOPLE last week that the two called it quits. Representatives for the performers did not comment on the split. Saxe, 29, hinted at a breakup in his new song, “When You Think of Me,” which he released on Sept. 23. He had been posting clips of the song before it was released, highlighting lyrics seemingly about a breakup.
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“When you think of me, are you setting fire to every memory? Do you believe what doesn’t last forever don’t mean anything?” Saxe sang in a Sept. 9 clip. “‘Cause I swear I loved you fully, and I’m sorry not for staying who we thought I’d be… When you think of me, am I just another man who leaves?”
Saxe later shared the lyrics to the song’s second verse, which was about him feeling terrible about hurting someone. He wrote about fearing his efforts to fix the relationship would only make things worse. “I hate how I lived up to your worst fears,” he wrote. “Makes it worse, how it worked so well for three years and it could all be for the best in the end. But for now, it feels like losing my best friend.”
Michaels, 28, has also shared clips and lyrics from an unreleased breakup song. “You’re just another man, and this is just another doorway. Using promises like they’re some kind of twisted foreplay,” Michaels wrote in lyrics she shared on her Instagram Story (later preserved by a fan on TikTok). “You keep saying that you’re staying when we both know that’s not your forte.” In another post, she shared a lyric in which she apologized to herself “for all the love I wasted on you.” On Sept. 15, Michaels shared a brief clip of herself performing the lyrics, with the caption, “A—holes live forever.”
Michaels and Saxe started dating after they wrote “If the World Was Ending” together. The hit ballad is about a flawed relationship, in which both people hope for reconciliation. The song sold over 3 million units in the U.S. and scored a Grammy nomination. Their romance grew when they were quarantined together during the coronavirus pandemic, and they contributed to each other’s 2021 albums. Michaels wrote two songs on Not in Chronological Order with Saxe, who said Michaels was the inspiration for many songs on his Dangerous Levels of Introspection.
Michaels also earned Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “Issues” in 2018. Earlier this year, she was nominated for Album of the Year as she co-wrote the song “Cheat Code” on H.E.R.’s Back of My Mind. She previously dated singer Lauv after they collaborated on “There’s No Way.”
