NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13: Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber attend The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Since rekindling their romance in 2018 with a swift engagement no one saw coming, Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber have continued to prove the doubters wrong, going from strength to strength in their marriage and cementing themselves as one of Hollywood’s favourite young couples. 

On the Met Gala red carpet on Monday, the Biebers looked as radiant as ever with Baldwin wearing YSL and Bieber repping his own label, Drew House. But in some of the photos, fans noticed Baldwin looked more downcast than usual, with someone asking the celebrity gossip Instagram account @NotSkinnyButNotFat if she’d thought the same thing.

The account’s founder, Amanda Hirsch, posted about Baldwin’s seemingly glum mood on her Stories and then was swiftly sent a video by someone on the ground at the Met. In the footage, Baldwin and Bieber are posing for photographers on the red carpet when fans start chanting “Selena” at them—yes, that Selena: Selena Gomez, Bieber’s ex who he dated literally forever ago.

In one of the clips, Bieber faces the other way and tries to ignore the chanting, while Baldwin is nowhere to be seen. The harassment could be one of the reasons Baldwin opted for sunglasses in a few of her photos:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13: Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber attend The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage)

Following someone sharing another clip of the red carpet harassment on Tik Tok (and another in which Bieber can be seen adorably telling his wife he loves her), Baldwin’s cousin, Ireland Baldwin, defended the couple, commenting on the video, “They’re one of the happiest and most in love couples I’ve ever gotten the chance to be around.”

“They don’t care about them,” she added, with a crying-laughing emoji.

@biebervelli

DISGUSTING #justinbieber #haileybieber #jailey #metgala #fyp

♬ STAY – The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber

@biebervelli

#justinbieber #haileybieber #jailey #metgala #fyp

♬ Like I Can – Sam Smith

Bieber has responded to fans who are still hung up on him and Gomez in the past—so too have both Baldwin and Gomez. In 2020, Bieber spoke out in response to someone who encouraged her followers to “bombard” Baldwin’s live stream “with Jelena and how Selena is better.”

“This sad excuse of a human just encouraged people on video to literally go after my wife telling people to say that my previous relationship was better so on and so fourth,” he said at the time. “I just wanted to share this so that people get an idea of what we face on a day to day. It is extremely hard to choose the high road when I see people like this try and rally to gather people to bully the person I love the most in this world. It is not right. But I will say this. As many people are there are that want to spend their time publically [sic] degrading, shaming, and trying to humiliate us, we would like to ask those who have it in them to lift us up in prayer. We need prayer and support as we continue to put ourselves out there!”

Baldwin also responded to the hate being directed at her, saying “I usually stay quiet and don’t acknowledge these things because I need to protect myself and my mental [health]. But it has truly gotten to a level of anger and hate that is shockingly unhealthy and sad.”

For her part, Gomez has previously asked her fans to be kinder on social media. “I do not stand for women tearing women down and I will never, ever be by that so please be kind to everyone,” she said on an Instagram Live in 2019, amid rumours of a feud between her and Baldwin.  She added, “It doesn’t matter what the situation is. If you’re my fans, don’t be rude to anybody, please. Don’t go off and say things that you just feel in the moment. Just please, for me. Know that that’s not my heart and my heart is only to release things that I feel that are me and I’m proud of. That’s all that I’ll say.”