Hailey Bieber breaks years-long silence on claims she stole Justin from Selena Gomez: 'There’s a very long history there'
"I’ve literally never talked about this ever. I understand, again, how it looks from the outside. There’s a lot of perception there."
Four years after getting married to Justin Bieber, model Hailey Bieber has spoken up about the claims that their marriage coincided with Justin's relationship with Selena Gomez
Hailey and Justin married in July 2018 after a few months of dating, which irked Jelena (Justin and Selena) fans at the time for its near timing to their breakup. Hailey was 21 at the time while Justin was 24.
Selena and Justin had been dating for over 10 years at the time, as they were also famous for their on-and-off relationship, right up until Justin's marriage.
The parties involved have spoken very little about the controversy, although fans have not forgotten about the claims that Hailey allegedly "stole" the Baby singer.
In the podcast Call Her Daddy, the Rhode founder shared for the first time in four years that this was not the case and "respect" remains at the forefront of how she sees Justin and Selena's public relations at the time.
"Okay, let’s just put it this way: When him and I ever started hooking up or like, anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship ever at any point," the model began.
She explained that it was not her "character" to date, let alone, marry someone, that was still hung up on their past lovers.
"I would just never do that. I was raised better than that. I’m not interested in doing that, and I never was," Hailey said.
"I think that there are situations where you can still kind of have back and forth with someone but even that was not the situation. Like I can say, period point blank, I was never with him when he was in a relationship with anybody. That’s the end of it."
"Oh, you stole him." And I guess maybe that just comes from the fact that they wish he had ended up with someone else.
She added that she was aware that Justin and Selena were in an on-again, off-again relationship, however, she had been erratically dating Justin back in 2018 as well.
"But that was a situation where I know for a fact that it was the right thing for them to close that door. They were not in a relationship at that time, but there’s a very long history there, and it’s not my relationship. It has nothing to do with me, so I respect that a lot."
"As a woman, I would never want to get into a relationship with someone and be engaged to them and be getting married to them and think in the back of my mind, I wonder if that was really like, closed for you. And I know for a fact that the reason we were able to get back together was that it was very much completely closed. And that is respectful to me," she added.
As for the rumors saying that she stole Justin, Hailey said that the conclusion could be drawn from the fact that many fans wanted the two artists to end up together.
"Well, I think one of the things that we already just covered is the timeline of things and a lot of the hate and the perpetuation comes from like, ‘oh, you stole him.' And I guess maybe that just comes from the fact that they wish he had ended up with someone else," she said.
"And that’s fine. You can wish that all you want but that’s just not the case."
On where they all stand now, Hailey says that all three of them have moved on from the drama. However, she still feels nervous talking about the issue in case that controversy comes up once again among fans and Jelena shippers.
She also revealed that she had spoken to Selena after her wedding, and it gave her peace.
"That’s why I’m like, it’s all respect, it’s all love. It’s also why I feel like if everybody on our side knows what happened, and we’re good and we could walk away with clarity and respect, then that’s fine. Which has brought me a lot of peace," the model continued.
"And I’m like, ‘Hey, we know what happened. It is what it is.’ You’re never going to be able to correct every narrative."
Selena herself recently celebrated her 30th birthday and is now the founder and CEO of her own makeup line, Rare Beauty.
You can listen to Hailey's full Call Her Daddy podcast episode here.