Justin and Hailey Bieber’s Love Story Through the Years

Long before Hailey became Mrs. Bieber, she met the “Love Yourself” singer for the first time during a meet-and-greet at the “Today” show in November 2009, per People. At the time, 12-year-old Hailey was with her father, Stephen Baldwin, who helped introduce her to the famous singer. The interaction was short but helped to lay a foundation for the pair’s strong friendship and eventual relationship.

Years after Hailey and Justin met, the two sparked romance rumors in November 2014 after they were photographed together at Hillsong Church in New York, as reported by the Daily Mail. Justin, who had recently split from Selena Gomez, was also pictured with Kendall Jenner at the service, but people zeroed in on Hailey and Justin potentially being an item at the time.

Years later, Hailey revealed to Vogue in a February 2019 interview that their friendship grew after going to church together. “One day Justin walked into Hillsong and was like, ‘Hey, you got older.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, what’s up?’ Over time he became my best guy friend. I was running around with him as his homie, but we weren’t hanging out [romantically],” she said.

The Instagram post from Justin stirred up plenty of speculation regarding his romance with Hailey, but the two clarified the status of their relationship in separate interviews in February 2016. Speaking with GQ, Justin called Hailey “someone I really love,” but he also noted that he didn’t “want to feel like the girl I love is an added responsibility.” The “Stuck With U” artist also explained, “I know that in the past I’ve hurt people and said things that I didn’t mean to make them happy in the moment. So now I’m just more so looking at the future, making sure I’m not damaging them. What if Hailey ends up being the girl I’m gonna marry, right? If I rush into anything, if I damage her, then it’s always gonna be damaged.”

Hailey added to Justin’s comments in an interview with E! that same month. “We are not an exclusive couple,” she revealed. “He’s about to go on tour. Relationships at this age are already complicated, but I don’t really like to talk about it because it’s between me and him.”

Sometime after Justin and Hailey’s comments, the two ended their romance. In August 2016, Justin unfollowed Hailey on Instagram after he started dating Sofia Richie, according to People. At the time, a source told the outlet that friends of both Justin and Hailey believed that Richie made the singer unfollow the model on social media. “Justin unfollowed Hailey on social media, and now all their friends are talking s- on Sofia and him and how messed up it is,” the source explained.

Hailey was romantically linked to Drake when everything unfolded, which may have influenced the decision to unfollow her. “Bieber wasn’t happy about it, and so they haven’t really been in touch in a bit. But out of nowhere, Sofia apparently made him unfollow Hailey and now she and her friends are all super upset,’ the source claimed.

After their breakup, Justin and Hailey went nearly two years without talking to one another. Hailey later touched on this time period in a February 2020 interview with Elle. “There was a time when our lives seemed to be going in very different directions,” she said. “I actually think – now that I look back at it being married – that it was a good thing for the two of us, very healthy.”

Approximately two years after Justin and Hailey went their separate ways, the two rekindled their relationship in June 2018. According to Us Weekly, the pair were spotted getting very close while attending a Vous Church conference in Miami. Then they spent the remainder of the weekend attached at the hip, an insider told E! News. “They both have two things in common; they love to party and they love their church organization,” the insider said. “They have finally cleared the air and rekindled their friendship, and realized they genuinely have a lot of fun together. . . . They both are single, and were very flirty with each other the entire night. They were inseparable the entire weekend and this was planned between the two.”

Touching on this moment in their rekindled friendship and budding romance, Hailey told Elle in February 2020, “We ended up being at this church conference together in Miami, and it was the first time we’d seen each other in a while. . . . I think we were both a little unsure about what was going on in the very beginning. It was familiar territory, but when a lot of time goes by, it’s like getting to know a new person.”

The Biebers made their joint Met Gala debut in September 2021, taking to the red carpet in coordinated black attire.

Hailey opened up about the possibility of her and Justin starting a family together in a February 2022 interview with WSJ Magazine. “I think ideally in the next couple of years we would try. But there’s a reason they call it try, right?” she explained. “You don’t know how long that process is ever going to take. Definitely no kids this year; that would be a little bit hectic, I think.”

In the same interview, she also revealed her decision to stop talking about her marriage in interviews and to keep the more intimate details of her relationship private. “It doesn’t feel worth it to me anymore when I try to have an open conversation with someone like you and then it gets taken out of context,” she said.

2022 was a scary year for both Justin and Hailey, as they experienced health scares. On March 10, 2022, Hailey revealed on Instagram that she’d had a mini stroke. “On Thursday morning, I was sitting at breakfast with my husband when I started having stroke like symptoms and was taken to the hospital,” she wrote in a statement on her Instagram Story (via People). “They found I had suffered a very small blood clot to my brain, which caused a small lack of oxygen, but my body had passed it on its own and I recovered completely within a few hours.”

In a YouTube video titled “Telling My Story,” Hailey explained the ordeal in more detail and revealed that she was diagnosed with PFO, a small opening in the heart that typically closes after birth. Doctors attributed the cause of the medical event to be from birth control, COVID-19, and a long flight that she had recently taken.

Months after Hailey’s scare, Justin experienced his own health problem. In June 2022, the singer shared on Instagram that he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which, according to People, is “a rare neurological disorder brought on by a reactivation of the same virus that causes chicken pox and shingles.” A common symptom of the syndrome is facial paralysis, which Justin experienced on the right side of his face.

Hailey shared an update on Justin’s health in an interview with “Good Morning America” that same month, saying, “He is getting better every single day. He’s feeling a lot better and, obviously, it was just a very scary and random situation to happen, but he’s going to be totally OK, and I’m just grateful that he’s fine.”