Hailey Bieber is speaking out about fans continuing to pit her against Selena Gomez. In a June 30 interview with Bloomberg‘s “The Circuit With Emily Chang,” Hailey opened up about the drama, calling it “awful.”
“I don’t think that this is about me, Hailey Bieber, and Selena Gomez,” she explained. “This is not about this pitting between two women and division between two women. It’s about the vile, disgusting hatred that can come from completely made up and twisted and perpetuated narratives. That can be really dangerous.” She said she’s “not OK with the kind of division that it caused” and the idea of being “team this person” and that she ultimately wants to bring people together.
Chang called it a “frustrating, old narrative” about two women being pitted against each other “over a man,” and Hailey replied, “Because of a guy? It’s awful. I hate it. I’ve hated it since the beginning.” She added, “And I think that kind of goes back to a little bit of just being misunderstood when it’s like time and time again I don’t know why I keep having to say, and we keep having to say, that there is no issue and there is no problem. It’s so disappointing that people still behave this way over a man. It’s the world we live in unfortunately.”
Hailey’s new comments come months after she and Gomez addressed the hate that had been circulating on social media during their bizarre alleged TikTok feud. On March 24, the “Only Murders in the Building” star posted a message on Instagram telling those who are bullying Hailey to lay off. She wrote, “Hailey Bieber reached out to me and let me know that she has been receiving death threats and such hateful negativity. This isn’t what I stand for. No one should have to experience hate or bullying.”
She continued, “I’ve always advocated for kindness and really want this all to stop.”
Later that day, Hailey wrote a message on her Instagram Story addressing Gomez’s post. “I want to thank Selena for speaking out, as her and I have been discussing the last few weeks how to move past this ongoing narrative between her and I,” she wrote. “The last few weeks have been very hard for everyone involved and millions of people are seeing so much hate around this which is extremely hard. While social media is an incredible way to connect and build community, moments like this only create extreme division instead of bringing people together.”
She continued, “Things can always be taken out of context or construed differently than they were intended. We all need to be more thoughtful about what we post and what we say, including myself. In the end, I believe love will always be bigger than hate and negativity, and there is always an opportunity to meet each other with more empathy and compassion.”
Gomez’s alleged drama with Hailey bubbled over in February. Read ahead for a breakdown of the strange celebrity back-and-forth between Justin Bieber’s wife and his ex.
How Did Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber’s Alleged TikTok Feud Begin?
It all started with a Jan. 7 TikTok video posted by user Rivet Soro, or @riristea. She reposted a TikTok that Hailey posted and quickly deleted. In it, Hailey, Kendall Jenner, and Justine Skye lip-sync to the popular audio, “And I’m not saying she deserved it, but I’m saying God’s timing is always right.” Soro questioned if this was a veiled message to someone, though she didn’t speculate who. Hailey responded to the claim on Jan. 7, writing in the comments, “I never comment on this type of thing but we were just having a girls night and did a random tik tok sound for fun. It’s not directed at anyone.”
Days later, some accounts began to speculate that the lip-sync moment was Hailey and friends responding to people body-shaming Gomez.
The drama heated up again on Feb. 22 when a TikTok account called @devotedly.yours made a new claim that Hailey and Kylie Jenner were shading Gomez on social. Gomez had made a TikTok video about how she’d “accidentally” overlaminated her brows. Kylie posted a selfie on Instagram shortly after captioned, “this was an accident???” She also posted a screenshot of a FaceTime call with Hailey where both of their faces were close to the camera. The TikTok user speculated they were making fun of Gomez’s brow blunder.
Kylie commented on the TikTok, writing, “This is reaching. no shade toward selena ever and i didn’t see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly,” to which Gomez replied, “Agreed @kyliejenner it’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie.”
A day later, Gomez jumped into the TikTok arena herself. A user posted a clip of a moment from Hailey’s tenure hosting “Drop the Mic” from 2017 to 2019. Method Man says in the clip that the next rap has “some of the meanest lyrics about a celebrity since Taylor Swift’s last album.” Hailey pretends to gag. The TikTok user called Hailey “a mean girl” and a “bully.” Gomez commented, “So sorry, my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game.”
But later that day, Gomez had apparently decided all the TikTok back-and-forth was too much. She went live on TikTok and said, “I’m gonna be taking a second from social media cause this is a little silly and I’m 30. I’m too old for this,” according to a clip reshared by Pop Crave. She was otherwise silent on the issue until her March 5 comments.
But some of her friends did jump into the TikTok fray. On March 14, Gomez’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” costar Jennifer Stone posted a TikTok of her mouthing the words, “Back the f*ck off and let this woman shine her light” along with the caption, “When people try to mess with my people.” She followed it with the hashtags “#backoff #growup #jealousyjealousy #shineyourlight #womenforwomen #teamselena.”
Back in October 2022, Hailey addressed the alleged feud between her and Gomez publicly. It all goes back to speculation that Hailey got together with her husband, Justin, when he was still dating Gomez. She denied that in an interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, saying, “When him and I ever started, like, hooking up or like anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship. Ever, at any point.” A day later, Gomez seemed to respond when she spoke to her TikTok followers urging them to act with kindness.
Then on Oct. 16, Gomez and Hailey posed together at the 2022 Academy Museum Gala, seemingly putting all the alleged drama between them behind us. It seemed the fighting was over forever, but the internet can give anything a second life.