On Sept. 28, Hailey Bieber sat down with Alexandra Cooper in a shocking Call Her Daddy podcast episode. Days before the official episode was released, the CHD official Instagram teased a preview of the episode, in which Cooper asked Hailey questions about her husband Justin Bieber’s extremely public relationship with Selena Gomez.
Fans have long been intrigued by the relationship commonly referred to as “Jelena,” as the two child stars grew up in the spotlight together. It’s no secret that their relationship was a little bit rocky, as the two were in an on-again and off-again relationship from 2010 until 2018, when Hailey and Justin suddenly got engaged and married. The complicated timeline of Justin’s relationships with both Gomez and Hailey have long left the media confused, with the blame typically falling upon his now-wife’s shoulders.
Hailey and Justin have been married for four years, but “Jelena” hasn’t left the minds of some fans. Hailey has publicly spoken out about the hate that she receives on a daily basis online, most recently in an April 2022 TikTok video where she said, “Leave me alone, at this point. I’m minding my business. I don’t do anything, I don’t say anything, leave me alone, please. Enough time has gone by where it’s valid to leave me alone. I beg of you, truly. That’s my only request.”
It came as a shock to many that Hailey decided to speak on her husband’s relationship with Gomez (who was never mentioned by name, by the way) right after the Sept. 20 release of a first look trailer for the mega-artist’s documentary. I find it a little uncanny that eight days after we got the first taste of Gomez’s My Mind and Me, Hailey suddenly wanted to dish her thoughts about the artist’s relationship with her husband, something she’s never talked about before. Sneaky timing or not, I’m here to break down the main takeaways from Hailey’s “one-time-only” interview where she discussed Gomez and Justin’s infamous relationship.
- Hailey and Justin’s relationship timeline isn’t as odd as everyone thinks.
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Gomez and Justin broke the internet when the exes were seen spending some time together in October 2017. More sightings of the pair allegedly back together continued until they called it quits again in March 2018. Gomez and Justin’s relationship timeline, coincidentally, coincides as Hailey was seen reconnecting with her soon-to-be-husband during that same month.
The media was stunned when they announced their engagement in July 2018, which happened to be just four months after they got back together. Hailey admitted that the timing of their engagement leading to marriage was pretty drastic and crazy, something she now sees looking back. “Just given the timeline of where he was at before we got back together and what was going on [then], there was just a lot happening.” Hailey did not, however, explicitly lay out their relationship timeline.
- Hailey was never with Justin while he was in a relationship with Gomez (or any other women).
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It’s no secret that the married couple went through some struggles before tying the knot back in 2018. What many fans can’t seem to wrap their heads around, though, is the start of their relationship so soon after Jelena broke up. Rumors of Hailey and Justin seeing each other while he was still with Gomez swarmed the media in the mid-2010s, but Hailey stated those relationships never overlapped.
“When him and I started hooking up, he was not ever in a relationship. Ever,” she told Cooper in the podcast episode. Hailey also said that internet trolls often call her a “homewrecker,” something that she emphasized is just not true.
- Hailey and Justin received closure from the “Jelena” relationship before they got married.
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Hailey did, however, mention how her husband and Gomez needed time before their reconnection to move on adequately. “It was the right thing from them to close that door,” she said, something that she fully understood and respected from both of them. Hailey attributed the success of their marriage to Justin’s ability to wrap up that chapter of his life, because she mentioned she wouldn’t have been able to marry him if the back-and-forth continued.
- She has struggled with bullying and hate.
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Hailey doesn’t like to get involved in online hate — but she did mention that it disheartens her to see what people say to her behind their screens. Whether they’re blaming her for the downfall of “Jelena,” or just flat-out telling her she doesn’t deserve to be married to Justin, Hailey has had to come to terms with the fact that she’ll never be able to make everyone like her.
She turned to YouTube as a platform where she could truly be herself, something she’s held off from doing for quite a long time. Hailey told Cooper that for quite some time, she didn’t want to do interviews where she’d have to open herself up and be expressive because she knew she would somehow get hate for it. “It still happens to this day,” she remarked, “You just reach a point where you have to say, ‘OK.’”
In her lowest moments, she recalls “not wanting to be here” and just not feeling like she should be so influenced about the hate comments. She recognized the blessed life that she has, and in her lowest moments she found herself thinking, “Get over it, you’re fine.” Her strong support system has been able to be there for her in her low moments, as well as some of her online fans. Though she still receives a bit of unnecessary hate, Hailey did point out that things have changed a little over the years and that there are a lot of people that support her.
- No, she wasn’t crying on the Met Gala 2021 red carpet.
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Cooper asked Hailey how she felt when she attended the 2021 Met Gala and fans began yelling Gomez’s name at her while she posed for photos with Justin. At the time, many believed that Hailey began crying at the sound of Gomez’s name, even more so when she put on a pair of sunglasses after hearing the yelling. Hailey debunked this rumor, stating that she wasn’t crying at all, but she did hear the shouting.
“Yes, I could hear everyone screaming. Again, I think there’s a certain part of you that has a numbness,” she said. Regarding the alleged crying, she stated, “The whole thing of everybody being like, ‘Oh he’s trying to tell her not to cry.’ That was not true.” She continued, “I felt like I had something in my eye. The sunglasses were just part of my look.”
- Hailey has nothing but respect for Gomez.
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Though many would love to hear Hailey publicly slander Gomez, her interview with Cooper was not meant for that purpose. Hailey proclaimed that the two have a mutual respect for each other, and that she’s even spoken to Gomez since she married Justin in 2018.
Cooper did ask Hailey if Justin or anyone close to the couple had ever reached out to Gomez to try and stop her fans from directing hate towards Hailey. She immediately answered no to this question, stating that “she doesn’t owe me anything,” and that Hailey would never expect anything from Gomez.