With all the recent drama involving Selena Gomez,
Hailey Bieber, and Kylie Jenner,
you may be wondering how Selena went from
being the queen of kindness to the queen of controversy.
Selena’s often been seen as the good girl,
from her beginnings in the “I love you, you love me” show Barney,
evolving into a squeaky clean Disney Channel star and megahit artist,
“You’re watching Disney Channel.” to becoming the most followed
woman on Instagram, preaching kindness to her
millions of fans worldwide. “Kill ‘em with kindness.”
When she and Justin Bieber ended their tumultuous relationship
for the final time in 2018, many were on Team Selena,
cheering her on and supporting her. But in the years since,
it seems like the internet, Justin and his wife Hailey,
everyone’s respective fanbases, and possibly even Selena herself
can’t let the relationship go. There’s a lot to unpack in recent
TikToks, Instagram Stories, and interviews between the women
and their warring fanbases. Here’s our take on why,
despite her best efforts to move on, Selena keeps finding herself embroiled
in controversy after controversy. Today’s biggest young celebrity drama
is feeling a lot like high school. And Selena has been victim to --
and sometimes participated in -- mean girl behavior that
all goes back to her past relationship
with Justin Bieber -- pitting her against Justin fangirl
turned wife Hailey Bieber, and the more tangentially involved
Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Selena Gomez’s relationship with Justin,
and their couple identity as Jelena, created more star power for both.
Their on-and-off romance lasted for eight years.
But then, nearly five years ago, it was over for good,
and Selena claimed to be over the relationship
and onto bigger and better things. “I support him.
I think I always will” She bounced back with
successful albums, tours, and television shows like Selena + Chef
and Only Murders in the Building. She even launched a wildly popular
makeup brand in Sephora called Rare Beauty.
“You’re authentic and you’re meant to be who you are and you’re rare”
And she’d also lived through a lot of genuinely hard trials --
as if growing up under the limelight hadn’t been enough,
she had the very real struggles of battling lupus and bipolar disorder.
But try as she might to stick to her personal brand of kindness
and rising above all the petty drama, she keeps getting sucked back in by
these celebrities and rude commenters, who come down on her so often
that she eventually feels she has to fight back.
“You tweeted something out saying --” “Yeah because look
I don’t want them to win.” Now, Selena is not new
to the social media clapback. When Beliebers were
bashing Justin’s new girlfriend Sofia Richie back in 2016,
Justin told his followers to back off. Selena commented:
"If you can’t handle the hate then stop posting pictures
of your girlfriend lol -- it should be special
between you two only. Don’t be mad at your fans.
They love you.” Justin then fired off:
“It's funny to see people that used me for attention
are still trying to point the finger this way.
Sad. All love. I'm not one for anyone receiving hate.”
Selena got the last word, saying: "Funny how the ones
that cheated multiple times, are pointing the finger at the ones
that were forgiving and supportive, no wonder fans are mad.
Sad. All love." So, about those cheating allegations...
What is perhaps the most complicated thing
about Selena, Justin, and Hailey’s relationship
is that Justin went back and forth dating Selena and Hailey
from December 2014 when Selena and Justin
broke up the second time, to when Justin finally
married Hailey in 2018. It is unclear if,
yet not totally unlikely, that those two relationships
overlapped in some way, even if Hailey denied it
on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “When him and I ever
started like hooking up or, like, anything of that sort,
he was not ever in a relationship”. But some fans and
internet sleuths question this, even going as far as declaring that
Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner took Selena to Dubai
for New Year’s Eve in 2014, so that their best friend Hailey
could hook up with Justin, which she did.
And Kylie saved that TikTok, meaning there could be
some truth to what was said. “This just shows that these girls
have been manipulating and trying to gaslight Selena for years.”
Regardless of if that story is true, keep those names in your head.
Because when Selena received a bunch of hate for
lupus medication-induced weight gain, Hailey posted a TikTok of her,
Kendall, and Justine Skye lip syncing: “I’m not saying she deserved it,
but I’m saying God’s timing is always right.”
While Hailey denied that the TikTok was about Selena,
Kendall is connected by the Dubai allegations,
and Justine Skye? Let’s just say she posted
a Snapchat story that definitely seemed like
she was shading Selena as well. And even though Skye
said she was hacked, she blocked Selena fans
who inquired about the story.