As you probably know, Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber stunned fans this weekend when they were photographed together for the first time.
Photographer Tyrell Hampton captured the sweet moment at the Academy Museum’s second annual gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night, with the photo uploaded the following day.
In the photo, the two stars lean into each other and look like best friends as they pose together. More photos from the Selena and Hailey night show share a hug and smiling for the camera.
While you may have seen the photos in question floating around on social media and heard rumors about their significance, you may not know the full significance of them.
Hailey and Selena’s united front comes after years of the two women opposing Justin Bieber.
The stars’ fandoms have been at loggerheads since 2018, with Hailey and Selena reacting publicly over the years after being targeted by online hate.
To understand exactly how messy the situation is, we have to go back to 2011 – when Selena started her seven-year relationship with Justin.
The two former child stars first went public with their romance in February 2011. They first split in November the following year and reconnected in April 2013.
This pattern continued for many years, and during their separation, Selena and Justin dated other people.
Hailey first burst onto the scene in 2014, with Justin forced to deny they were dating as he posted a selfie with her on Instagram and said she was a “good friend”.
Ironically, Hailey was a huge “Jelena” sender before she and Justin started dating and regularly tweeted about him and Selena as a couple when she was a teenager.
In 2011, she wrote, “I don’t care what anyone says, but Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez together is the definition of a teenage dream!”
The following year she said Selena was “beyond perfect” and Jelena was the “perfect relationship” joking that she would be “lonely forever”.
Hailey was around 15 at the time and her Twitter account has since been deleted. Neither she, nor Selena, nor Justin ever acknowledged the tweets.
Meanwhile, Justin and Selena’s last attempted relationship was between November 2017 and March 2018, and Justin reconnected with Hailey three months after the split.
They met at a press conference in Miami for their church in June 2018, and Hailey recalled Justin saying at the end of their chance encounter, “We’re not going to be friends.”
The following month, Justin proposed and he and Hailey legally wed in a private ceremony at the courthouse in September 2018 – just six months after his last breakup with Selena, and after nearly eight years of their tumultuous relationship.
Due to this quick turnaround in Justin’s romances with Selena and Hailey, the two women often found themselves at the center of vicious attacks and internet drama.
In October 2019, Selena appeared to hint at her fans targeting Hailey during an Instagram Live.
“I can’t stand women shooting women down,” she told her followers. “I will never, ever be through this. So please be nice to everyone. No matter the situation, if you are my fans, please don’t be rude to anyone.
“Don’t go away and say things you feel in the moment… Please, for me, know that this is not my heart,” Selena continued.
And Hailey tried to show solidarity with her husband’s ex, liking one of Selena’s 2019 Instagram photos as well as the Elle magazine post that featured Selena in August 2021.
A source previously told Us Weekly that Hailey hoped liking Selena’s photos would show fans “there are no hard feelings.” The insider added, “It’s her way of trying to make peace and show her support for Selena in a low-key, yet public way.”
But her efforts seemed to be in vain and in April this year Hailey apparently made reference to the fact that she was still getting nasty messages from Selena fans.
Although she didn’t go into specifics, she said in a TikTok video, “Leave me alone at this point. I mind my business. I do nothing, I say nothing. Please leave me alone. Enough time has passed where it’s worth leaving me alone. Please, sincerely. This is my only request. Leave me alone. Be unhappy elsewhere. Please.”
And the attacks went both ways, with Selena being targeted by Hailey fans the following month when they accused her of shading Hailey after posting a video of her skincare routine. skin on social media.
Selena didn’t speak throughout the clip, let alone refer to Hailey, but some claimed she was mocking Hailey’s recent “Get Ready With Me” post, as comparisons were quickly drawn between the two videos.
Selena apologized at the time but admitted she had “no idea” what she had done wrong. She commented on the video, “That’s why I believe in taking care of your sanity. Guys no idea what I did but I’m so sorry. Zero bad intentions. Deleting soon.”
And then last month, Hailey directly addressed the pseudo-feud between her and Selena on the call her daddy podcast, where she pointed out that her relationship with Justin does not overlap with Selena in any way.
“When he and I started dating or anything like that, he was never in a relationship, at any time. It’s not my character to mess with someone’s relationship” , she said on the podcast, “I would never do that. I was raised better than that. I’m not interested in doing that and I never was.”
“It was a situation where I knew for a fact that it was the right thing for them to close that door; they weren’t in a relationship at the time,” Hailey later added. “But, of course, there’s a very long story there and it’s not my relationship.
“It has nothing to do with me, so I respect that a lot, but I know it closed a chapter and I think it was the best thing that could have happened to him to move on, to get engaged , to get married and move on with her life that way,” she continued.
Acknowledging the backlash to her relationship with Justin, Hailey admitted their marriage was “really drastic and really crazy” but insisted it was the right decision. “The only people who really know the truth about the situation and what the actual timeline was and how it happened and how it happened are me and him,” she said.
And Hailey made a point of reiterating that there is “no drama” between her and Selena, saying, “I respect her, there is no drama personally.”
She also revealed that they had a conversation which brought her “a lot of peace” and “it’s all about love”. Hailey explained, “That’s also why I feel like everyone on our side knows what happened and we’re good and we can walk away from it with clarity and respect, and that’s what happened. is good.”
At the time, Hailey received backlash from Selena fans for speaking out about Selena so publicly, and the singer responded by encouraging her followers to be kind during a TikTok Live.
Although she didn’t address Hailey by name, Selena said some of the things she saw online were “just vile and disgusting” and “not fair.”
“No one should ever be talked to the way I’ve seen,” she continued, before reiterating the importance of being “kind” to other people online.
Although Selena and Hailey have spent the last few years saying nothing but their desire to move on with their lives without hard feelings for each other, they have always been treated as rivals.
However, the footage from the weekend now serves as a visual representation of their united front, and many people have shared their hope that this will mark the end of the drama.
“I’m sorry, but if you can’t say that Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber really have no problem with each other and that you as fans are the problem, then you don’t know what you say. Please end the drama,” a person tweeted.
Another echoed: “It’s kind of iconic that Hailey and Selena attending the same event got to take a picture together after y’all heard some crazy theories about them hating each other…it’s about time to rest and move on.”
And one more abstract“This is a truly iconic moment in pop culture. I hope this puts an end to the constant comparison between Hailey and Selena and that people online can finally move on.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
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