There’s no one influencers feel more comfortable confiding in these days than Alex Cooper, host of Spotify’s popular sex and relationships podcast Call Her Daddy. On the latest episode, model and Rhode Skin founder Hailey Beiber, who’s previously been reluctant to speak to the media, sat down with Cooper to address the hate she’s received online regarding her husband, Justin Bieber, and his famous ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez.
Most of the hourlong sit-down focused on Hailey’s marriage to Justin, specifically the criticism they received around their engagement and rumors that she “stole” the “Peaches” singer from Gomez while they were still dating, which Hailey firmly denied.
“When he and I ever started hooking up or anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship,” the 25-year-old said. “Ever. At any point. It’s not my character to mess with someone’s relationship. I would never do that.”
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Justin and former Disney Channel star Gomez—who somehow goes unnamed throughout the entire podcast episode—had a famously tumultuous on-and-off relationship that began in 2010 and reportedly ended in March 2018, the same year he announced his engagement to Hailey. This timing, of course, left many spectators raising their eyebrows.
“I understand, again, how it looks from the outside,” Hailey told Cooper. “And there’s a lot of perception there. 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 of course, 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. But I know that it closed a chapter. And I think it was the best thing that could’ve happened for him to move on and be engaged and get married and move on with his life in that way.”
Upon her engagement, the model received heaps of backlash from her husband and Gomez’s passionate fanbases, respectively referred to as Beliebers and Selenators. As Cooper notes in the interview, fans had a hard time letting go of the former couple, affectionately dubbed Jelena, and the idea that they were each other’s first and only loves. According to Hailey, the scrutiny has manifested in nasty social media comments, including an incident two years ago when she was attacked by Selenators leaving hateful messages on an Instagram Live.
Cooper also brought up Hailey and Justin’s red carpet appearance at the 2021 Met Gala, where the crowd repeatedly shouted “Selena” at them. At one point on the carpet, Hailey fiddled with something in her eye, which fans interpreted as her crying from the negative chanting—one of many conspiracy videos speculating about the couple’s body language. Hailey, however, set the record straight by telling Cooper that she simply had something in her eye.
During the interview, Cooper also asked Hailey if Justin or anyone else asked Gomez to help put an end to the harassment, to which Hailey said no and insisted she doesn’t “expect someone to do that for [her].” Gomez did indirectly address the situation after the release of her 2019 single “Lose You To Love Me”—a song seemingly about her breakup with Justin—when she urged her fans on Instagram Live not to “be rude to anybody else” on her behalf.
As for whether or not Hailey is on good terms with Gomez, the model said they have spoken since her wedding and that there’s no bad blood between them.
“It’s all respect,” Hailey said. “It’s all love. That’s why if everybody on our side knows what happened and we’re good and we could walk away from it with clarity and respect, then that’s fine.”
Whether or not Hailey finally dispelling fan theories about her marriage will keep Selenators and Beliebers off her back, she seems doubtful. However, the model told Cooper that the harassment has cooled down over the years and that the internet’s criticism hasn’t compromised her “extremely blessed” life.
“They’ve never ruined anything for me,” she stated confidently. “They’re not ruining my life. They’re not ruining my happiness. And that is actually the win of the whole thing. You’re actually not taking anything away from me.”
