A few weeks ago, Selena Gomez made the decision to leave social media after headlines swirled around rumored drama between the star and both Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber. Later, Gomez returned to the outlet to ask fans to be kinder following the cyberbully Bieber received. On Friday, Gomez spoke out again after Bieber told her she’s received death threats.
Gomez wrote on an Instagram Story, “Hailey Bieber reached out to me and let me know that she has been receiving death theaters and such hateful negativity. This isn’t what I stand for. No one should have to experience hate or bullying. I’ve always advocated for kindness and really want this all to stop.”
Hours later, Bieber posted an Instagram Story thanking Gomez for calling for an end to the bullying. “I want to thank Selena for speaking out, as her and I have been discussing the last few weeks how to move past this ongoing narrative between her and I,” Bieber wrote.
She continued, “The last few weeks have been very hard for everyone involved and millions of people are seeing so much hate around this which is extremely harmful. While social media is an incredible way to connect and build community, moments like this only create extreme division instead of bringing people together. Things can always be taken out of context or construed differently than they were intended.”
Bieber promised to be more mindful of what she posts and urged others to do the same. “In the end, I believe love will always be bigger than hate and negativity, and there is always an opportunity to meet each other with more empathy and compassion,” she concluded.
Bieber previously spoke about receiving hate from Gomez’s fans on Call Her Daddy podcast last year. She opened up about the toll it took on her mental health and said she got depressed. “When things can get really dark, and you can start having thoughts of, like, it not being worth it anymore or not wanting to be here anymore, which I have had before in the past,” Bieber said.
One day later, Gomez told her fans, “some of the things that I don’t even need to be aware of are just vile and disgusting. And it’s not fair because no one ever should be spoken to in the manner that I’ve seen and all I have to say is it’s incredibly ironic that I would release something that is all about kind words [she created a Kind Word collection for her line Rare Beauty] ‘cause that’s exactly what I want. That’s it. If you support Rare, I cannot thank you enough, but know that you are also representing what it means and that is words matter. Truly matter.”
Her recent exit from social media came after TikTok users speculated that Bieber and Jenner were bullying Gomez. Then, they inferred that Gomez confirmed it when the singer commented on a post about Bieber being a bully.
Fans have pitted the two women against one another for years. Gomez and Bieber had an on-and-off relationship over eight years. Justin and Hailey have been married since 2018.
Fans thought the two already put feud rumors to bed when they posed for photos together at the 2022 Academy Museum Gala in October. But now that each have been speaking to one another and showing support on social media, let’s hope no bad blood comes between the two — or their fans.
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