Chris Brown
Chris Brown had posted flirty messages on Shay Mitchell's photos on InstagramReuters

Chris Brown is reportedly flirting with Pretty Little Liars star Shay Mitchell to make his ex-girlfriend Rihanna jealous.

The Loyal singer is trying to take revenge after a photo of the Barbadian beauty and American actor Donald Grover emerged on the internet.

The 31-year-old Canadian actress posted a photo of herself attending the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards on her Instagram account. Brown was quick to comment on the image and wrote: "Shooting my shot," along with various ball emojis.

#ChrisBrown shooting his shot at #ShayMitchell ??? ?: @gettyimages

A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on

According to a report in Hollywood Life, Brown is trying hard to get Rihanna's attention. A source said: "Chris has an ulterior motive when it comes to flirting so publicly with Shay. He wants people talking about who he's flirting with because he knows it will get back to Rihanna."

Chris Brown Rihanna
Chris Brown and Rihanna during happier timesReuters

"He gets very jealous whenever she's linked to any guy — even if there's absolutely nothing going on. Like with her and Donald Glover, that really got to Chris, it upset him. Hitting on Shay Mitchell like this is a bit of payback for that. He wants Rihanna to know she's not the only girl he's interested in, that there's competition," the insider added.

However, the website noted that Brown does want to give it a shot with Mitchell. The source shared: "Chris isn't playing with Shay, he would like to take her out. But he could have easily keep it private, he made it public to get Rihanna's attention, he wants her to be jealous of him and Shay the way he's jealous of her and Donald."

Meanwhile, Mitchell had previously admitted she is always mistaken to be a lesbian after playing Emily Fields, a gay character in Pretty Little Liars. During an interview with Maxim in 2017, she had opened up about her sexuality. She said: "People always ask me, 'You play a gay character? Are you gay? Are you straight? Are you this? Are you that?'"

"Look, Emily doesn't label herself, and I don't label myself either. I fall in love with the spirit of somebody. Love is love, and that's something that I'll keep saying," she added.