Why Did Drake Share Photo of Woman With Tattoo of The Weeknd’s XO?

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Drake, whose 2026 has thus far included not one but three new albums, has some fans a tad perplexed after his sharing of an XO-related photo to his Instagram.

For those somehow unfamiliar, though it’s difficult to fathom that being a real possibility, XO is a label and brand and all-around collective identifier associated with co-founder The Weeknd. The Instagrammed mention from Drake, of course, wouldn’t be of much note were this article being written, say, a decade ago or so. But a lot has (seemingly) changed over the years.

Back in late 2024, for example, the Iceman artist urged xQc to turn off The Weeknd’s music during a livestream. His firm request led to the streamer switching to blink-182’s 1997 classic “Dammit,” which Drake dubbed “that real shit.”

As we detailed at the time, Drake and Abel, though once known as frequent collaborators, had seemingly cooled on their working relationship by that point. That same year, the latter was among those in attendance for Kendrick Lamar’s post-beef Pop Out event.

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In 2025, we were again reminded of the two’s complicated relationship amid misguided speculation that Abel could be heard on Drake’s “What Did I Miss?” single, later included on the final tracklist for Iceman. The Weeknd, to be clear, is not featured on the song.

Fast forward to this week, and Drake has left fans scratching their heads after sharing a photo of a woman rocking an XO tattoo on her left shoulder to his Instagram Stories. In his usual fashion, zero context was provided for the photo in question.

See it below.

A woman wearing sunglasses and a green cover-up sits by the water. A man in a blue cap leans in toward her.

Image via Drake on Instagram

So what, if anything, does this mean? A potential reconciliation in the form of new (or at least previously unreleased) music? Or arguably far more likely, mere trolling? Hard to say, but you can take a look back at the earlier days of Drake and The Weeknd’s once-entwined paths here.