“None of them could play with my hair, they were all nervous”: Sabrina Carpenter on using five different men for her Man’s Best Friend cover shoot

Sabrina Carpenter has revealed more details about the controversial cover photo for her latest album titled Man’s Best Friend. On June 11, 2025, the Espresso hitmaker shared the cover art for her album, which showed her on all fours next to a faceless man wearing a suit.

The man holds a fistful of the singer’s hair while she looks at the camera. The album cover’s style quickly ignited debate across social media, drawing criticism from many over the singer’s artistic decision.

In a September 3, 2025, interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Sabrina Carpenter expressed that she used five different men to shoot the album cover, and they were nervous and couldn’t play with her hair:

"None of them could play with my hair, they were all pulling it, like they were all nervous... the purpose of the photo is to be cheeky, airy & playful...this is someone I love but who is also doing a lot w/ my heart and emotions. I'm clearly in control even though I'm on all fours."

Man’s Best Friend hit the airwaves in August 2025 and featured 12 tracks and an LP special bonus track. The album set a Spotify record for most streams in a day by a female artist.

“When I came up with the imaging for it, it was so clear to me what it meant,” Sabrina Carpenter talks about the controversial album cover in an interview

In a September 2, 2026, interview published by Interview Magazine, Sabrina Carpenter revealed that she didn’t expect the negative reaction to her album cover. The Please, Please, Please hitmaker revealed that she made the cover because it felt right to her and made sense in relation to the music.

"When I came up with the imaging for it, it was so clear to me what it meant. So the reaction is fascinating to me. You just watch it unravel and go, ‘Wow.'”

The album cover raised questions on dominance and submissiveness, and Sabrina Carpenter addressed them:

“I do feel like submission is both dominant and submissive. It really depends on what your intentions are and what you want, and what you crave, and what you need,” she said. “The image, the way I see it, is a metaphor, but I’m sure that other people are like, ‘Dang, she’s a sub?'”

On the subject of making the album, the singer revealed that her idea of perfection often stretched the production process over several months. Man’s Best Friend, however, was different; she chose to finish it more quickly without overthinking every detail.

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