Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber became yesterday’s biggest celebrity news headline when photos of them came out posing together at the Academy Museum Gala they both attended on Saturday night. The two embraced in the pics and were generally very friendly.
But make no mistake: There was a bigger message the women wanted to send with the public display, a source told Entertainment Tonight, after years of some fans pitting them against each other because both were romantically involved with Justin Bieber. Hailey is married to him, while Selena dated him on-off for 10 years.
The source said, “Selena and Hailey were both super chill together at the Academy Museum Gala. They’ve both moved on and are happy in their own lives. They wanted to show the world that there’s no beef or bad feelings between them anymore.”
A second source addressed how Justin felt about the move. “Justin is very happy with the fact that they can all move on and that it can be peaceful between everyone,” that source said.
The two’s big moment comes after Hailey discussed her relationship with Selena in her Call Her Daddy interview and also revealed there was no overlap between her romance with Justin and Selena’s. She revealed the two had talked privately: “Yes, [we have spoken]. Yes [we have spoken after my marriage]. So that’s why I’m like, it’s all respect, it’s all love. It’s also why I feel like if everybody on our side knows what happened, and we’re good and we could walk away with clarity and respect, then that’s fine. Which had brought me a lot of peace, and I’m like, ‘hey, we know what happened. It is what it is.’ You’re never going to be able to correct every narrative, and there’s going to be new ones that come [from this interview]. It’s never going to end, and that’s why I get to the point where like, that’s why I didn’t speak about a lot of this stuff because I’m like, there will be something new. ”
A day after Hailey’s podcast interview was released, Selena spoke out on a TikTok Live, asking her fans to not harass Hailey.
“I think some of the things that I don’t even need to be aware of are just vile and disgusting,” Selena said. “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 [her makeup line Rare Beauty’s Kind Words Matte lipstick and lip liners, which Selena did a press tour of Europe to promote] ’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. So it’s coming from me, and I just want all of you to know that I hope that you understand that this is much bigger than anything else. I’m really grateful to all of you for hearing me out, so have a wonderful rest of your day, and I appreciate all the love. Thank you.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.