The Selena Gomez Hailey Bieber drama explained—from *all* the latest news to how it began

The Selena Gomez Hailey Bieber drama is still making waves online despite the pair now being Insta mutuals. So, what exactly went down and where do Selena and Hailey stand now?

Perhaps a good place to start is with Selena and Hailey Bieber's history and that rumored (or not so rumored) 'feud' narrative. As most fans will know, their respective relationships with Justin Bieber have long since fuelled speculation of dislike between them. However, after the glazed donut nail muse and Rare Beauty mogul posed for that internet-shattering, cozy picture together in October 2022—it really seemed peace had finally come for the 'Jelena' and 'Jailey' stans of the world.

Or not, as February 2023 saw the internet ignite with speculation that an all-out social media war has sparked between the stars.  So, what on earth happened? Here's a blow-by-blow of the whole messy sitch...

The latest news in the Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber drama

Following all the speculation and Selena's break from social media, the pair have now finally addressed the drama with Selena taking to her Story on March 24, 2023 to share a statement that read: "Hailey Bieber reached out to me and let me know that she has been receiving death threats and such hateful negativity.

"This isn’t what I stand for. No one should have to experience hate or bullying. I’ve always advocated for kindness and really want this all to stop."

Hailey then responded with her own statement which thanked Selena for speaking out and continued: "her and I have been discussing the last few weeks how to move past this ongoing narrative between her and I. 

The last few weeks have been very hard for everyone involved and millions of people are seeing so much hate around this which is extremely harmful. While social media is an incredible way to connect and build community, moments like this only create extreme division instead of bringing people together.

"Things can always be taken out of context or construed differently than they were intended. We all need to be more thoughtful about what we post and what we say, including myself. In the end, I believe love will always be bigger than hate and negativity, and there is always an opportunity to meet each other with more empathy and compassion."

The pair have now also followed each other on Instagram, with Hailey even liking one of Selena's latest bikini snaps—so clearly, the two are trying to quell the drama and move past it.

A timeline of all the Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber drama

So, for anyone looking for a quick overview of exactly what happened between Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber and when, here's a timeline from the past few weeks...

• January 2023—The 'God's Timing' TikTok: Selena gets subjected to body shaming trolls, before Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Justine Skye post a video to the TikTok sound, saying: "I'm not saying she deserves it, but I'm saying God's timing is always right." This now-deleted video goes viral, with fans speculating it was aimed at Selena, which Hailey denied.
• February 21, 2023—The Selena Gomez Eyebrow TikTok: Selena posts TikTok stories using the Bella Hadid Filter and sound, saying she wishes she was as pretty as the model, before revealing that she tried (and supposedly failed) in laminating her eyebrows to look like Bella's. Hence, the Selena Gomez eyebrow drama begins...
• A few hours later: Kylie Jenner posts a close-up picture of her eyebrow to her Instagram story with the caption: "This was an accident?????" before sharing a screenshot of her and Hailey showing their eyebrows to each other on FaceTime.
• The eyebrow drama goes viral: Fans begin to speculate that the pair were shading Selena's eyebrow video.
• Kylie responds: Kylie responds to a video discussing the eyebrow drama by commenting: "This is reaching. no shade towards Selene ever and I didn't see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly." To which, Selena then replied: "Agreed @kyliejenner, it's all unnecessary. I'm a fan of Kylie!".
• February 23, 2023: A video then resurfaces of Hailey 'gagging' at the mention of Taylor Swift—Selena comments on one of the TikToks saying: "So sorry my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game."
• Selena's social media break: Soon after, Selena announces in a TikTok live that she's taking a break from social media.
• March 1, 2023: Kylie's former best friend, Jordyn Woods, then appears to support Selena in a Snapchat video, showing herself using a Rare Beauty lipliner.
• Justin Bieber Twitter drama begins: Fans begin to speculate that Justin Bieber has started following his ex, Selena, on Twitter.
• March 4, 2023: Justin celebrates his birthday and posts a series of carousels to Instagram, few of which feature Hailey—sparking speculation about their relationship.
• Justin's Party Favors: Then Justin's lighter party favors start going viral, as fans spot the inscription, which reads: “I'm so thankful I didn't end up with what I thought I wanted"—which many believe is a dig at Selena.
• March 6, 2023: Selena returns to social media after taking a break 
• March 24, 2023: Selena shares a statement on her Insta Story in defense of Hailey, writing: "This isn’t what I stand for. No one should have to experience hate or bullying. I’ve always advocated for kindness and really want this all to stop."
• March 25, 2023: Hailey follows up, thanking Selena for speaking out while adding: "Things can always be taken out of context or construed differently than they were intended. We all need to be more thoughtful about what we post and what we say, including myself"
• March 25, 2023: Selena and Hailey follow each other on Instagram, with Hailey even liking one of Selena's recent posts 

A full breakdown of the Selena Gomez Hailey Bieber drama

So, what went down and what did Hailey Bieber say to Selena Gomez, exactly? For anyone in need of a full debrief, bear with us, the timeline of events gets a bit wild... 

Let's first begin with the latest developments, namely Selena and Hailey's statements and Justin Bieber's Twitter antics and party favors...

Selena and Hailey's statements

After weeks of the internet just running with these feud rumors, Selena took to her Instagram Story to share a statement, which read: "Hailey Bieber reached out to me and let me know that she has been receiving death threats and such hateful negativity.

"This isn’t what I stand for. No one should have to experience hate or bullying. I’ve always advocated for kindness and really want this all to stop."

Hailey then followed suit, thanking Selena for her statement and sharing how the 'hard' the past few weeks have been for her and everyone involved, before adding: "Things can always be taken out of context or construed differently than they were intended. We all need to be more thoughtful about what we post and what we say, including myself. 

"In the end, I believe love will always be bigger than hate and negativity, and there is always an opportunity to meet each other with more empathy and compassion."

The pair have now followed each other on Insta, with Hailey even liking one of Selena's posts...

Justin Bieber's Party Favors

Before their statements, Justin Bieber's birthday party celebration on March 4, did little to quell the media storm. Users on TikTok and Twitter began speculating over Justin's choice of snaps shared to his Instagram from the party, with some noting that Hailey didn't really feature. They are also the first pictures he's posted of her since all the drama began. 

Some onlookers took this as a sign that their relationship was on the rocks. A baseless claim, but fans really rolled with it.

Then came the party favors—an image began circulating on Twitter of Justin's supposed party favors which were cowboy boot lighters with the inscription: "I'm so thankful I didn't end up with what I thought I wanted," which many took as a dig at his ex Selena.

Justin Bieber allegedly follows Selena Gomez on Twitter

Ahead of Justin's birthday, the internet went wild yet again, after fans claimed that Justin and Selena had refollowed each other on Twitter amid the drama...

And, after a bit of Twitter sleuthing ourselves (by sleuthing we mean clicking on Selena and Justin's follower count) we can confirm, they do indeed now follow each other.

Kylie's ex best friend, Jordyn Woods enters the chat...

Ahead of Justin's birthday, Kylie Jenner's former best friend, Jordyn Woods also seemingly weighing in on the rumored 'feud.'

Fans (and all those invested in this sticky sitch) are reacting to Jordyn sharing her go-to lip liner on Snapchat—which just so happens to be one of Rare Beauty's offerings. Jordyn posted a video of her using the lippie, with the caption: "Love this lip liner."

Before sharing a second video of the pencil itself, saying: "If you're wondering the shade color." 

This also comes after another former pal of Kylie, Pia Mia posted a makeup 'Get Ready With Me' video of her using a lot of Rare Beauty products and set to the sound of Selena Gomez's remix of 'Calm Down.'

@piamia

💗🎀

♬ Calm Down - Rema & Selena Gomez

Now, of course, the pair might just be fans of the brand, but the timing does seem to hint at something deeper, with onlookers dubbing it as a subtle show of support.

@iamrockytee

♬ original sound - Rocky ♥️

February 2023: Selena Gomez's TikTok live announcing her social media break

Prior to this, Selena took to TikTok live and announced that she was taking a break from social media.

As per Pop Base, Selena said: "I'm very happy, I'm so blessed, I have the best friends, the best fans in the whole world and I just couldn't be happier.

"I'm good. I love the way I am I don't care, I'm big, I'm not, I don't care. I love who I am. And yeah, I'm gonna be taking a second from social media, because this is a little silly. And I'm 30, I'm too old for this, so...but I love you guys so much! And I will see you guys sooner than later, I just... I'm just gonna just take a break from everything." 

February 23, 2023: The Hailey Bieber Taylor Swift drama starts!

Following the whole Selena Gomez eyebrow drama,  an old video of Hailey then resurfaced and began making the rounds of TikTok, showing the model gagging at the mention of Taylor Swift...

The clip goes viral and Selena Gomez defends Taylor

Selena then defended Taylor Swift, aka her best friend, and took to the comments of the trending TikTok—originally posted by user @duckcopycat0—and wrote (in a now-deleted reply): "So sorry my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game."

February 21, 2023: The Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner eyebrow drama officially begins...

The ensuing drama over the past month all seems to have spun out from that Selena and Bella Hadid situation—where Selena dubbed Bella (who also famously dated The Weeknd), her girl crush on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, before sharing a TikTok story saying she wished that she was as pretty as the model—especially with her thin 90s brows. She then followed up with another story revealing her own brow lamination faux pas after trying to achieve a similar brow look (though, we still think they looked great!). 

All pretty harmless, right? Well, fans then spotted two posts on Kylie Jenner's Instagram story a few hours later. The first was a selfie of Kylie with the words "This was an accident?????" placed over her brows. The second, featured a screenshot of her and Hailey on FaceTime, showing close-ups of their eyebrows—which Hailey also shared to her own story.

These pictures then went viral, with TikTok users, especially, speculating that they were throwing shade at Selena.

Kylie Jenner's eyebrows response

Kylie, however, responded to one of the videos (posted by @devotedly.yours), writing in the comments: "This is reaching. no shade towards Selene ever and I didn't see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly."

To which, Selena also replied: "Agreed @kyliejenner, it's all unnecessary. I'm a fan of Kylie!"

January 2023: The 'God's timing' TikTok

Before this Selena Gomez eyebrow drama sparked, it's also important to mention another viral video that had already alerted fans to some potential bad blood. In January 2023, Selena was subjected to some cruel, body-shaming comments from trolls after sharing a bikini picture on her Instagram. 

Shortly afterward, Hailey then posted a TikTok video, alongside Justine Skye and Kendall Jenner with the trio lip-syncing to the sound: "I'm not saying she deserves it, but I'm saying God's timing is always right." 

@popcultmedia23

♬ original sound - PopCultMedia

Many users felt this was in reference to Selena, with the clip then being reshared and going viral despite Hailey since deleting it. Users then also began sharing a screenshot of Selena allegedly commenting on one of the videos, saying: "It's okay! I don't let these things get me down! Be nice to everyone!"

Along with one from Hailey, which said: "I never comment on this type of thing but we were just having a girls night and did a random TikTok sound for fun. It's not directed at anyone." 

Is Hailey Bieber losing followers and why?

Yes, following the whole eyebrow and Taylor Swift drama, both Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner's Instagram follow counts have taken a massive hit.

According to The Tab, both Kylie and Hailey have collectively lost 800 thousand Instagram followers, with Selena Gomez then going on to dethrone Kylie as the most followed woman on Instagram. So, it's safe to say it's been an eventful few weeks...

Is there a Hailey Bieber apology video?

As of yet, Hailey has not addressed any of the TikTok speculation, in regards to the eyebrow drama, nor that Taylor Swift video, following Selena's Live video announcing a break from social media.