The internet has invested in a new celebrity feud for the past few weeks: Selena Gomez vs. Justin Bieber’s wife, Hailey Bieber. The decade-long feud was reignited over the past week after TikTok users claimed that Bieber and close friend Kylie Jenner shamed Gomez after posting a bikini photo during her vacation and a video commenting on her eyebrows. Since then, many on the internet have decided to defend Selena, calling themselves Team Selena, and began to look more into Hailey Bieber’s past with Justin and Selena. 

The supposed feud between Bieber and Gomez started in 2013. Tabloids and gossip columns fueled the rivalry. Rumors of the feud began around 2013 when Justin Bieber was first seen hanging out with Hailey Baldwin and her friends Kylie and Kendall Jenner. During this time, Justin was in an on-and-off relationship with Selena Gomez, and during their breaks, he would go out with other women, one of which was Baldwin. In a tweet, Hailey seemingly shaded Selena when she said she did not like her new song. Many fans once again attacked her, which led her to take to Twitter, writing, “And to the people calling me immature, I think immature is taking the time to learn a dance to diss someone and posting it on the internet,” referring to a video in which Selena danced to “Everybody Knows” by Dustin Tavella. 

From 2015 to 2016, Justin and Hailey were officially announced to be in a relationship. During this time, Hailey liked a tweet about Selena, “RT for HOT, Like for NOT,” which again sent fans into a frenzy. After this, the couple broke up, and Justin started dating model Sofia Richie. After being on a break for a few years, Gomez and Bieber got together again in 2018 but broke up for the final time after a few months that March. Justin and Hailey began dating and got engaged in July of that year. Two months later, they got married at a New York City courthouse. 

From 2018 to now, Hailey and Selena have seemingly squashed the beef, but Jelena and Selena’s fans have not stopped sending Hailey Bieber hate. At last year’s Met Gala, fans of Selena Gomez shouted “Selena!” as the married couple posed for photos. 

The drama was reinvigorated after Hailey Bieber posted a TikTok in which she, Kendal Jenner and Justine Skye lip-synced to an audio that said “I’m not saying she deserves it, but God’s timing is always right.” TikTok users speculated that she was referencing the body shaming comments that Selena was getting after posting a bikini photo while on vacation. After that, many once again suspected that Hailey and her celebrity friends were bullying Gomez because they posted close-up eyebrow photos after Selena talked about her over-laminated brow mistake.

In a TikTok talking about the situation, Kylie and Selena both commented that the drama is unnecessary and being taken out of context. Because of this, clips of Hailey’s shady moments resurfaced on TikTok, one of which was a clip of Hailey pretending to gag when Taylor Swift, Selena’s best friend, was mentioned. Selena commented, “So sorry my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game.”  As people began to dig into Hailey’s past, tweets and clips were found of her fangirling over Justin before she was friends with him, which started the theory that Hailey was obsessed with Justin, and because of that, she is jealous of Selena. Hailey and Selena have both since announced a break from social media. Hailey has only returned to wish her husband a happy birthday. 

The recent feud between the two has sparked a discussion online about the internet’s obsession with celebrity feuds. Because of all this drama, the internet and the media have attacked Hailey and her character to lift Selena. However, this accomplishes nothing. Both Hailey and Selena have decided to take social media breaks because of how bad the drama has gotten. Selena has had to speak up, telling people to stop taking things out of context. Hailey has indeed had a past with shading Selena and her friends, but it’s important to note that Selena has also come after Justin’s girlfriends. Both Hailey and Selena have done wrong things in the past, but this was almost seven years ago. Both have better things to do than focus on an old rivalry primarily fueled by tabloids. 

In response to the recent drama, freshman and longtime Justin Bieber fan Suhani Singh said, “To be honest, there’s a lot of bias here. Lots of people have been labeling Hailey as a ‘mean girl,’ and Selena has done an equivalent amount of things to be labeled [with] the same title. I’m not dismissing what Hailey’s said and done, but the other party should be held just as accountable. I genuinely don’t think people care, the only thing the public eye cares about is tearing down images and feeding on gossip and drama. In my opinion, this Hailey, Selena [and] Justin drama needs to die already.”

At the end of the day, this feud is something that the internet will cling to for the next couple of weeks before it dies out and is forgotten. The internet will always do what it loves to do, which is gossip.