Hailey Bieber has addressed rumours that she cried at the Met Gala after the crowd began chanting “Selena, Selena” in reference to her husband Justin Bieber’s ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez.
The model, 25, opened up about the incident, which took place on the red carpet at the 2021 Met Gala, during an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper, where she said that it was “not true” that the chanting made her cry.
“So, yes, I could hear everyone screaming. And, again, I think there’s a certain part of you that has a numbness. I was, like, really surprised,” Hailey said of the moment on the red carpet, adding: “I could kind of hear it but I didn’t know if that’s what was really going on until I saw the video after.”
Hailey was referring to a video taken of her and the singer, in which Justin appeared to mouth to her: “Don’t cry” amid chants of “Selena” from the crowd.
However, according to the Rhode Beauty founder, it was “not true” that she was trying not to cry in the moment.
“The whole thing of everybody being like: ‘Oh he’s trying to tell her not to cry,’ that was not true,” Hailey told Cooper. “It wasn’t making me cry.”
While Hailey denied that the chanting made her emotional, she did acknowledge that it was “disrespectful” of the crowd.
“Although, it’s a very disrespectful thing to do towards anybody,” she continued, before explaining that she may have looked tearful because she “felt like [she] had something in [her] eye”.
According to Hailey, who noted that the moment in question actually captured her husband trying to see if something was in her eye, the viral speculation around the video proved how “out of context things can be seen”.
As for why she put on dark sunglasses while posing on the red carpet, Hailey said the glasses were just “part of her look” and that she was going to wear the accessory “regardless” so there would be photos of her wearing them and some without.
“Yeah, I did hear people yelling. It wasn’t making me almost cry,” Hailey reiterated, before noting that it wasn’t until she saw the video back after the event that she felt hurt by the “energy” and time that the crowd spent chanting Gomez’s name. “It was disrespectful. To me, to my relationship. It just was. Period. The end.”
While reflecting on the incident, Hailey also noted that she’s “endured so much disrespect” and still does “to this day” that there was a part of her that was not phased.
Shortly after the couple arrived on the red carpet at the 2021 Met Gala, they were met with chants of Justin’s ex-girlfriend, who he dated on and off for several years.
In a video of the incident that circulated on TikTok shortly after, Justin appeared to tell his wife that he loved her before the model was seemingly seen wiping tears from her eyes. The singer then placed a hand on his wife’s face, with the captions suggesting that he urged her not to cry. Hailey was then seen reaching for a pair of sunglasses from a nearby assistant, which she wore for the remainder of the night.
The harassment prompted numerous fans to express their support for the couple, who have been married since September 2018, with many condemning “Selenators” for being “obsessed” with the past.
Elsewhere in her interview with Cooper, Hailey addressed rumours that she “stole” her husband from Gomez, an allegation that she denied.
“When he and I ever started hooking up or anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship, ever, at any point,” she clarified. “It’s not my character to mess with someone’s relationship. I would just never do that, I was raised better than that. I’m not interested in doing that and I never was.
“I can say period point blank I was never with him when he was in a relationship with anybody, that’s the end of it.”
As for Justin’s decision to move on from his relationship with Gomez, she said it was the “best thing that could have happened for him, to move on and be engaged and get married”.
