Key Takeaways
- Miguel’s upcoming album, CAOS, explores themes of identity, healing, and personal transformation.
- On “The Breakfast Club,” he addressed public speculation about his relationship timeline and clarified the meaning behind “Always Time.”
- He emphasized the importance of self-love and emotional growth before entering a new relationship.
When Miguel dropped his emotional single “Always Time” last year, fans could tell he was reflecting on more than just music. As he prepares to release his long-awaited album CAOS on Oct. 23, the Grammy winner stopped by “The Breakfast Club” to open up about love, loss, and everything in between. He confirmed that the song, which includes the line “maybe this time love means letting go,” was inspired by the end of his marriage to Nazanin Mandi.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “It’s very public that I was married… I was with Naz when I was 19... It was a long time. And in the midst of that, I was being a musician and becoming a musician and finding my audience and all of that. It was a lot of learning... Who were we all when we were 19, 20?”
Miguel explained that “ Always Time ” came from a place of self-discovery. “That song was written because I was uncovering a lot of my values in real time,” Miguel added. “The word loyal is crazy... I saw my grandparents stay together [for] my entire life. They were loyal to the family. But loyalty, like, were they happy? I don’t know.”
The San Pedro native continued, “That song is about, kind of like, coming to terms with, you know, I can’t even be the right person for you, I can’t be it... and, like, discovering that in real time is crazy work. When you’re like, ‘Damn, I thought the whole thing was like, I’m supposed to fight it out’… and at some point, when you stop and you go, you know what? The best thing I can do is actually let it go.”
When asked if doing the inner work he's doing now could have saved his marriage, Miguel was honest: “If I would have done all of this before, who’s to say no? We definitely would have had a much better shot... It would have been a very different experience, but you can’t change the past, you know? And I’m very happy that we’ve had adult, real… Man, it’s different when you’re able to come to somebody and go, ‘I didn’t realize I was doing this and I’m really sorry.’”
Miguel clears up cheating rumors
The “Adorn” hitmaker also took a moment to address speculation surrounding his new co-parenting relationship and the timeline of his son’s birth. Last month, Miguel revealed he shares a one-year-old son, Angelito, with filmmaker Margaret Zhang — news that came as a surprise to fans who followed his long-term relationship with Mandi. “The f**ked up part is that people start doing the wrong math,” he said. “The one thing I did not do [was] start a relationship while I was married and then had a baby. I got divorced… I met my son’s mom after we were divorced. I met her at an event that we were not even supposed to go to. That was well after we were done.”
Miguel and Mandi’s relationship began when they were teenagers and endured nearly two decades of highs and lows, including a 2018 wedding and a final divorce in 2022. Their public love story made them a fan-favorite couple, which Miguel acknowledged played a role in how people viewed their breakup. “When I was with Naz, we became a symbol to a lot of people of what relationships could be and could look like,” he said. “But we’re just human beings just like everybody else, and we were mad young.”
Now, the singer says he’s focusing on self-love and becoming the best version of himself before opening up to love again. “I need some healing to be in love,” Miguel admitted. “Right now, I’m working on being in love with me… I do hope one day I can be in love again, but right now I’m working on numero uno.”