Diplo has set off a fresh round of headlines and online argument after claiming in a podcast interview that he has dated both Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau, a declaration that mixes long-documented history with Perry and a provocative new assertion about Canada’s former prime minister that the DJ delivered with a straight face but without elaborating. Appearing on the “Smart Girl Dumb Questions” podcast, the 46-year-old producer—real name Thomas Wesley Pentz—pivoted from a discussion about Quebec’s reputation to the subject of Perry’s widely reported new relationship with Trudeau. “Now, Katy Perry is dating Justin Trudeau,” he said, before interrupting the host’s follow-up with a deadpan aside: “Oh, I did date Trudeau too. That was a weird one though. Because I’m just, I’m not in the positions.” The clipped exchange, circulated in short video posts and aggregated by entertainment sites on Sunday, was interpreted by many listeners as a tongue-in-cheek boast, but it added combustible fuel to a celebrity-politics story already humming because of Perry’s recent sightings with Trudeau.
Pressed by the podcast’s co-host, Diplo also nodded to his brief 2014 romance with Perry, which is a matter of public record: the pair were photographed together at Coachella and on New York nights out in the weeks after Perry’s split from John Mayer, and contemporaneous coverage described them as affectionate and “lovey-dovey.” Years later, Perry—asked to rank former partners in a jokey late-night segment—placed Diplo third, prompting his puckish tweet, “I don’t even remember having sex.” Whatever the musician thinks of that moment now, his offhand delivery on the podcast placed him once more in a narrative orbiting the pop star, whose private life routinely turns into public fixation.
The Trudeau line is the part that detonated across timelines. Within hours, entertainment outlets captioned the clip with variations on “Diplo says he dated Justin Trudeau,” reproducing his exact phrasing—“I did date Trudeau too…that was a weird one”—and his trailing remark that “I’m not in the positions,” which listeners read as an innuendo-laden quip rather than a literal description. Some write-ups framed the moment as deliberate mischief; others simply relayed the claim and noted the absence of corroborating detail. If the ambiguity was the point, it succeeded: fans and detractors filled the gap with speculation, while editors stitched the soundbite to a fast-moving backdrop in which Perry and Trudeau have, in recent weeks, been reported as a new couple keeping things relatively private.
On the facts that lie outside innuendo, the public trail is clearer. Perry and Diplo were linked for a short spell in 2014, and multiple mainstream outlets at the time chronicled their appearances together, from an after-party for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 premiere to nights downtown in Manhattan. The relationship fizzled within months, and both moved on—Perry eventually into a long partnership with Orlando Bloom that ended this July, a split the pair announced in a joint statement emphasising “love, stability and mutual respect” for their co-parenting of daughter Daisy Dove. The pop star has since been photographed and reported spending time with Trudeau; as of late September, lifestyle publications were characterising the connection as ongoing but low-key while acknowledging neither party had put it on the record. Those are the contours into which Diplo’s quip dropped: a real, brief dating history with Perry; a rumoured new pairing for her; a sudden claim that he himself once “dated” the same former world leader.