Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez have been photographed together for the first time in history and the internet has practically imploded in response to the pictures.
The Rhode Skin founder and Only Murders In The Building star posed up a storm last night at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, which also saw Hollywood stars such as Amal and George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Mia Goth in attendance.
And the two starlets smiling alongside each other should have been a fairly inconsequential photo op, except for the fact that they represent the current and ex-partner of pop star Justin Bieber, and have never been seen together publicly before this.
Not only that, but the internet has been speculating for years over a potential feud between the two stars, after it was rumoured that there was some overlap between their respective relationships with Bieber.
Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber were in an on-again-off-again relationship for eight years before they eventually called it quits in May 2018. Just two months later, Bieber announced that he was engaged to a model known then as Hailey Baldwin.
Especially because Baldwin and Bieber had an on-again-off-again relationship of their own. The pair dated as kids after meeting at a Justin Bieber fan event in 2009 (cute) when Hailey was just 12 years old and Bieber would have been 15 — in fact, the moment was even captured on camera.
The two then split and got back together around 2015 during a brief Jelena hiatus, and then eventually split again before finally reuniting and tieing the knot in September 2018.
The overlap and feud rumours have been swirling for so long that Hailey Bieber was forced to address them in her episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast last month — four years after marrying Justin.
“Let’s just put it this way: When him and I ever started, like, hooking up, or like anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship, ever, at any point,” Hailey said on the podcast. “It’s not my character to mess with someone’s relationship. I would just never do that. I was raised better than that.”
She also noted that she and Gomez had spoken since the marriage, and that it was “all love” between the two of them. “I respect her. There’s no drama personally,” she said. “If everyone on our side knows what happened and we’re good and we can walk away from it with clarity and respect, that’s fine.”
Selena even seemed to agree with her on an Instagram live days later, where she appeared to comment on hate directed at Hailey Bieber. “I think some of the things that I don’t even need to be aware of are just vile and disgusting,” she said on the livestream. “And it's not fair because no one ever should be spoken to in the manner that I've seen."
And now, less than a month after the Call Her Daddy episode release, Hailey and Selena have been seen cosying up to each other at the Academy Museum Gala, greeting each other warmly, hugging and chatting enthusiastically.
The internet went wild for the pair’s long-awaited introduction (though we already know they’ve interacted before, we’ve just never seen it) and lead many to claim the two had “broken the internet”.
how to break the internet by selena gomez and hailey bieber: pic.twitter.com/N4OKmNF4qL
— chiars (@ghostvofyou) October 16, 2022
In response to the pictures, one fan said: “Never, never in my life I would’ve expected this,” with another fan stating, “I think we all didn’t see that one coming.” One Twitter user said simply, “This feels illegal to look at.”
Well, no matter how long it takes the internet to accept it, Selena and Hailey have clearly moved on — and judging by their previous comments on the situation, they think we all should too.
