Selena Gomez has shocked fans after reacting to a TikTok about her weight while dating Justin Bieber.
Selena and Justin spent seven years in a turbulent on-again, off-again relationship, beginning in 2011. They last attempted to make things work in November 2017, though ultimately split for good the next March.
Just three months later, Justin started dating Hailey Bieber, and by September 2018, the pair were legally married.
Selena documented her feelings about the split in her 2019 hit song “Lose You to Love Me,” which charts the experience of a breakup leading to self-love.
Explaining how she came to write the song in her recently released documentary, My Mind and Me, Selena said: “I text Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter and said, ‘I think I’m ready to just say I’m sad.’ We wrote the song in 45 minutes. The fastest song I’ve ever written.”
“It’s about more than a lost love,” she said. “It’s me learning to choose myself, to choose life, but also hoping that people can find grace and peace in that too. The song is about knowing that you completely lost every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again.”
Selena revealed that she felt “haunted” by the past relationship, most of which unfolded in the public eye.
“Everything was so public,” she said. “I felt haunted by a past relationship that no one wanted to let go of. Then I just moved past it, and I wasn’t afraid anymore… I feel like I had to go through the worst possible heartbreak ever and then just forgetting everything at the drop of the hand, it was really confusing.”
Selena then went on to call her and Justin’s breakup “the best thing that ever happened” to her.
“I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she said.
And now, Selena has commented on the subject once more by publicly reacting to a TikTok about her weight during her and Justin’s relationship.
The video in question was shared by user @donttellmymomma.f, and featured a series of old paparazzi photos of Selena alongside the caption: “The reason why Selena is always skinny when she dates Justin.”
The clip went on to show a screenshot of an Instagram comment Selena had left in the past that suggested Justin preferred to date “models.” Replying to someone who had commented that Justin had “really messed up” under one of her old posts, Selena appeared to claim: “He’s rather models. I’m just too normal.”
Echoing Selena’s alleged comment in the caption of the TikTok, the user claimed, “He rather models. My poor baby.”
The video quickly went viral, with many users quickly expressing their empathy for Selena as they reacted to her apparent past claim.
“So sad,” one person wrote. “omg this devastated me,” another echoed.
But fans were left really shocked when Selena herself entered the conversation to leave a single sad-face emoji under the TikTok.
The move quickly sparked a mixed divide among fans. While many internet users were left all the more upset for Selena, others accused her of “stirring the pot” by drawing attention to the past relationship in a negative light once more.
“the hate towards selena for responding to a tiktok about her weight is so unnecessary… she’s been body shamed for about a decade, especially recently because of her lupus medication… she has every right to comment something regarding HERSELF and HER body,” one person tweeted.
“I don’t understand how a woman can be bodyshamed from the media down to the person she was in love with and yet still be the bad guy for speaking up about it, it’s really ‘we support all women and their struggles’ until it’s Selena Gomez,” another said.
“Selena had been bodyshamed for years from someone she loved and now it’s HER fault for speaking about it?! ARE YOU FOR REAL?! Just say you hate women,” someone else wrote.
Others brought Hailey Bieber’s recent Call Her Daddy podcast episode into view too, arguing that both women are entitled to speak their minds about their different relationships with Justin — whether positive or not — in spite of the online drama from fans, many of whom have pitted the two against each other over the years.
“hailey can do a whole podcast about selena’s relationship in 2022 and justin can say that he’ll always love her in 2019, but selena gomez cant comment about how she felt about her body during her past relationship?!” one popular tweet read.
Looking incredibly friendly at the Academy Museum Gala in October, Selena and Hailey posed for the now-viral photo — and put speculation of any bad blood to rest in the process.