How Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber Have Dealt With Rumors About Their Marriage

Seven years ago, Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber wed at a New York courthouse. The singer and the Rhode mogul have since faced countless rumors about their marriage. See how they handle the gossip.

A question that’s likely crossed Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber‘s minds after reading rumors about themselves online: What do you mean?

Because as the “Sorry” artist and the Rhode mogul have asserted time and time again, much of the gossip about their life, relationship and cryptic social media posts isn’t true.

“I feel like I’ve fought so hard to try to get people to understand me, or know who I am, or see me for me,” Hailey noted to Vogue in a cover story released in May. “And people just don’t want to sometimes. And there’s nothing you can do about that. I’ve been in a position where I’ve tried to tell my side of a story or correct a narrative or tell the truth of a lie and then they go, Well, she’s lying. Imagine how trapping that feels.”

Having to deal with rumors about everything from the state of their union to Justin’s wellbeing didn’t make navigating their first year as parents to 12-month-old Jack Blues Bieber any easier.

“Being postpartum is the most sensitive time I’ve ever gone through in my life, and learning a new version of myself is very difficult,” the model continued. “And to be doing that all the while going on the internet every day and people being like, They’re getting divorced and They’re this and They’re not happy: It is such a mindf–k. I cannot even begin to explain it. It’s a crazy life to live.”

One they’ve been living for a long time. After meeting at a Today taping in 2009 and developing a friendship, Hailey and Justin had an on-again, off-again relationship that led to them getting back together in 2018 and then announcing their engagement shortly after.

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There have been questions about whether there was any overlap between their romance and his with Selena Gomez—the “Purpose” singer and the Only Murders in the Building star (now happily engaged to Benny Blanco) also having a yearslong on-again, off-again relationship before splitting earlier in 2018. But Hailey has long insisted this wasn’t the case.

“Not once,” she said on a 2022 episode of Call Her Daddy. “Let’s just put it this way: When him and I ever started hooking up or anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship—ever, at any point.”

Even after Hailey and Justin wed—first at a New York courthouse in 2018 and then again in South Carolina the following year—rumors about their relationship kept popping up like daisies.

“It does bother me when people just don’t like me simply because of the rumors they’ve heard or the ideas they’ve come up with or things that they’ve seen,” the 28-year-old added. “It makes me sad. But I think I’ve had to come to the point and the realization of there is no way that you exist as a person, especially not as a person with a platform or in the public eye, where everybody loves you.”

So while Hailey and Justin could spend 10,000 hours responding to each and every internet theory, a lot of the time they just don’t say anything at all.

“One of the I think issues with that is that then you get stuck having to explain yourself for every little thing,” she continued. “And I had to get over that because I was in a place at one point where I felt like I wanted to explain the narrative and explain myself and that’s also exhausting.”

Instagram / Hailey Bieber

Although, there have been exceptions where Hailey has called out rumors “made out of thin air.” Because even when she and Justin try to tune out the noise, it can still seep through.

“People have made me feel so bad about my relationship since day one,” she told W Magazine in July 2024. “‘Oh, they’re falling apart. They hate each other. They’re getting divorced.’ It’s like people don’t want to believe that we’re happy. I used to try to act like it hurts less and less. I’ve tried to think that you get used to it at a certain point, that this is what’s going to be said and this is how people are going to be. But I realize that it doesn’t actually ever hurt any less.”

Still, they’ve stuck together through life’s ups and downs and proven they’re partners in sickness—in 2022 Hailey suffered a blood clot to her brain and Justin was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome—and in health. Not that every day is perfect.

“I’m not going to sit here and lie and say it’s all a magical fantasy,” Hailey told Vogue in 2019. “It’s always going to be hard. It’s a choice. You don’t feel it every single day. You don’t wake up every day saying, ‘I’m absolutely so in love and you are perfect.’ That’s not what being married is. But there’s something beautiful about it anyway—about wanting to fight for something, commit to building with someone.”

And at the end of the day, she added, “he’s my best friend. I never get sick of him.” And Justin has made his intentions clear too.

“Baby, I ain’t walking away,” the 31-year-old sang on his single “Walking Away,” released in July. “You are my diamond / Gave you a ring / Made you a promise / I told you I’d change / It’s just human nature / These growing pains / And baby, I ain’t walking away.”