Leave it to the internet to take a fan theory and turn it into a full-blown dating rumor. The latest idea to come along the grapevine? A would-be romance between Selena Gomez and Chris Evans, with the rumors hinging on an Instagram follow and a few mysterious photographs.

To back up slightly, fans realized that the Marvel star was following Sel on Instagram (Selena, as of right now, does not follow him back), which led to some theories claiming that the two stars were spotted leaving the same establishments on the same day. The theories were seemingly backed up with pictures that appeared to show Selena and Chris in duplicate locations, making it look like they were covertly leaving separately to avoid being photographed together. However, it turns out that there’s a bit more to these pics than originally might have met the eye.

As pointed out by Elle, the photos in question were actually all taken at different times — different years in fact. That “evidence” depicting Sel supposedly leaving a studio separately from Chris? It’s actually from October 2019 — two whole years ago. And one of the pieces of paparazzi “proof” regarding Chris was from the summer of 2020, with another dating all the way back to 2013!!! It just goes to show that sometimes theories — even ones with pics! — can look compelling, but it’s always worth digging deeper. (And even if Selena and Chris were hanging out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re dating, right? Right.)

FWIW, Selena did once admit to having a crush on Chris. In 2015, the Only Murders in the Building star shared her thoughts with Andy Cohen, saying, “I kind of have a crush on Chris Evans. Isn’t he cute? He’s very cute.” But calling another celeb cute doesn’t equate to dating either.

Source: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/selena-gomez-chris-evans-dating-rumors-explained