In one major way, Selena Gomez seems to have emerged victor in the internet spat that fans think she's having with Hailey Bieber, wife of her ex-boyfriend Justin.
Gomez's supporters have been accusing Bieber, formerly Hailey Baldwin, 26, of throwing shade at the singer in a series of Instagram stories. They say the model's even roping her friend Kylie Jenner into the feud.
The drama got so ridiculous that Gomez, 30, said that she was taking a break from social media.
"I'm going to be taking a second from social media, because this is a little silly. I'm 30 and am too old for this. But I love you so much, and I'll see you guys sooner than later," Gomez said during a TikTok live.
Despite her social-media pause, Gomez has managed to gain 20 million new Instagram followers in the past 30 days, according to social-media statistics website Social Blade.
The numbers were not so good for Bieber, whose follower count was down 275 percent or by a little more than 1 million accounts.
Gomez's biggest day for gaining new followers was on February 25. This was at the height of internet speculation about the alleged feud and just a couple of days after announcing her break. On that date, she gained 2.12 million followers in just 24 hours.
Bieber's daily average follower loss was 35,403, but on March 9, she managed to gain 788 followers.
The social-media hit is just one of a few recent examples where Bieber's public image has suffered.
At the Rolling Loud festival over the weekend, the crowd started chanting "f*** Hailey" after her husband, Justin Bieber, finished his surprise performance with Don Toliver.
While it's not sure if Bieber heard what the crowd was saying, he appeared to ignore them and walked toward the back of the stage.
Fans have long alleged there was a feud happening between Bieber and Gomez, who dated Justin for eight years. He proposed to his model wife just two months after he split from Gomez.
But the flare-up of the rumors came in February when fan accused Bieber of being a "mean girl" after she posted a video with friends Kylie Jenner and Justine Skye. In the video, the trio lip-synced to an audio: "I'm not saying she deserves it, but I'm saying God's timing is always right." The video dropped just as Gomez was being body-shamed for having gained some weight due to her lupus medication.
Then, in February, things got even more heated when Gomez posted to TikTok, saying she'd "accidentally laminated [her] brows too much."
Jenner then posted a photo of herself on her Instagram stories with the caption, "this was an accident???" written over her eyebrows. She later shared another story showing a screenshot of her on FaceTime with Bieber; they were both holding their cameras close to their eyebrows.
Gomez fans thought they were teasing their idol, but Jenner was having none of it.
"This is reaching," Jenner commented on a TikTok about the incident. "No shade towards Selena ever and I didn't see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly."
Gomez added: "Agreed @kyliejenner It's all unnecessary. I'm a fan of Kylie!"
Just last week, fans thought that Bieber was being shady again when she reshared a story of a business showing off her skincare brand, Rhode.
The song playing over the video—which would have been added by the business in the original post—was "Calm Down" by Rema. This would have not been an issue, but Gomez's fans noticed it was the original version of the song, and not the remix she featured on.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
