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Was there an overlap?
By Nia Tipton — Written on Sep 28, 2022
Hailey Bieber is finally addressing the rumors that she came in between Justin Bieber and his ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
Hailey, 25, appears on an upcoming episode of Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast, addressing the claims that she "stole" Justin from Gomez.
“Were you ever with Justin romantically at the same time as [Gomez]?” Cooper asks the model.
“This is so crazy. I’ve literally never talked about this ever,” she responds. “A lot of the perpetuation and the hate comes from ‘Oh, you stole him.’"
“It’s about people knowing the truth. Because there’s a truth.”
While Hailey has never publicly addressed Justin's previous relationship with Gomez, the rumors have seemed to follow her throughout her marriage to the "Peaches" singer.
Did Justin Bieber cheat on Selena Gomez with Hailey Bieber?
Hailey denied there ever being overlap between Justin's relationship with Gomez and his relationship with Hailey — though he did often date them back-to-back.
The model stated that her husband "closed a chapter" with Gomez before they reconciled shortly before their 2018 marriage.
“I think it was the best thing that could have happened for him to move on and be engaged and get married and move on with his life in that way,” Hailey explained.
“I know what was going on when we got back together and I know what had to happen for that to come back together in a healthy way.”
She says that while fans might wish Justin had ended up with Gomez, the two had ended things before Hailey came back into Justin's life.
“I would never want to get into a relationship and get engaged and be married to them and think in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder if that was really, like, closed for you,'” Hailey added.
“I know for a fact that we were able to get back together was because it was very much completely closed.”
Justin and Gomez were first romantically linked in 2011 after the two claimed to be just friends for two years and Gomez referred to Justin as her "little brother."
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were on and off before he began dating Hailey Baldwin.
After more than a year together, the two called it quits in November 2012, with a source close to the couple issuing a statement to Us Weekly confirming their split.
"Selena broke up with Justin about a week ago. It's been a really challenging experience over the last year because of their crazy schedules," the source claimed.
"Selena definitely had some major trust issues with Justin. They are [young] … it changes from day to day. Right now it is a break and tomorrow it could be back on knowing them .. it's hard to say how they will end up.”
The source seemed to be right and by April 2013, Justin and Gomez were back together, and for the next two years, their relationship would be on and off.
However, by the end of 2015, Justin was spotted kissing Hailey on New Years' Eve. The two of them had first met in 2009 after Hailey's father, Stephen Baldwin, introduced the two of them.
Justin and Hailey briefly dated in 2016.
In 2020, the couple addressed their breakup during the first episode of their Facebook Watch series, with Hailey claiming that it had been a bad breakup and the two were "not on good terms" for a while.
After Justin and Hailey split, Gomez was spotted with him again in March 2016, however, by August 2016, Justin was spotted with Sofia Richie.
In December 2017, a source told Us Weekly that the exes were in communication via text.
“Justin reached out to Hailey. They didn’t talk on the phone and it wasn’t in person, just an exchange of texts,” the source said.
“There is nothing going on between her and Justin. … They’ve both moved on. The messages were platonic, and friendly.”
Justin and Selena were linked again in early 2018 before he married Hailey.
Following the end of Gomez's relationship with The Weeknd, she and Justin were spotted all over Los Angeles together in March 2018, but two months later, they were confirmed to be over for good.
By June 2018, Justin and Hailey were reportedly dating, and the musician proposed to Hailey a month later — they confirmed their marriage in November 2018.
Less than a year into their marriage, a source told Us Weekly that Justin "stayed away from Selena to be loyal to Hailey."
Gomez addressed her thoughts about Justin and Hailey's quick engagement and marriage in her 2019 song "Lose You To Love Me," singing, "In two months, you replaced us / Like it was easy / Made me think I deserved it / In the thick of healing."
Hailey briefly spoke about the timeline of her relationship with Justin during a remote appearance on Ashley Graham's podcast "Pretty Big Deal" in 2020.
"People don't know, too, we had been talking for a while before we got back together," she said. "Contrary to popular belief, he had been single for a while and I had been single and we were kind of just trying to figure life out."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.