Camila Cabello is in her hometown of Miami, close to where she lives in what the artist describes as a “healing place” and a “tropical oasis”. Amid the jungle-like greenery Miami is known for, she enters a dock. I’m on a walking track in my own green oasis at my local park in Sydney, Australia. It feels like I’m walking alongside the Grammy-winning singer as I listen to her first-person podcast-style recording on the Apple Fitness+ app, powered by Apple Watch.
Unlike the staged, media-trained responses we’re accustomed to when it comes to a standard interview, Cabello was candidly chatting about her childhood.
“I came to the United States when I was about seven-years-old and I didn’t speak any English,” Cabello admits. According to the “Havana” star, she and her mother simply walked across the border from Mexico. “At the time being Cuban, we could step into the United States and be legal and be on the track to becoming citizens. My dad couldn’t join us right away because he is Mexican and Mexican people now and at that time could not cross over legally like that.”
She continued, “My parents brought me here for the same reason that a lot of migrant families immigrate, which is just there’s opportunities that aren’t available in the country where you live, or violence. My parents were looking for a better life for me.”
Amid the conversation (seagulls could be heard in the background), Cabello also discussed feeling extremely burnt out prior to the pandemic. “I didn’t have time to get to know who I was outside my career.”
The singer later added, “I definitely asked for help. I asked for time. And I learned a lot of tools. I tried a lot of different things. Different kinds of therapy, meditation, exercise, changing the way I eat, definitely changing the way I schedule my time and making sure that there’s balance.”
Last week, Cabello announced she split with her boyfriend of two years, Shawn Mendes.
Listen to the rest of the conversation on the Apple Fitness+. It will make going on your daily walk so much easier – trust us! Time to Walk also features conversations from Naomi Campbell, Shawn Mendes and Bebe Rexha).
