From their awkward first encounter as kids to their fairytale wedding.
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Justin Bieber officially made Hailey Baldwin one less lonely girl when they tied the knot on a beautiful fall day in 2018. However, their relationship has a long history that predates their marriage. The celebrity power couple, known for their distinct fashion styles, had a journey filled with twists and turns.
They first met as teenagers, an encounter awkwardly captured on camera, but it wasn’t until years later that they became friends. During the early years of their platonic relationship, they found themselves dodging romance rumors. Eventually, they decided to give the boyfriend-girlfriend thing a try, but their first attempt at love ended in heartbreak.
However, they didn’t give up on each other. After some time apart, they rekindled their flame, and the second time around was a charm. They happily wed not once, but twice, following their reunion. Since then, they’ve been open about the challenges and joys that come with married life.
Their journey from acquaintances to friends to lovers, then to enemies and back to lovers, is a testament to the complexity and resilience of their relationship.
November 2009: Justin and Hailey meet at a Today show event.
Justin and Hailey had the most adorably awkward first meeting when they were just 15 and 12 years old, respectively—and lucky for us, their introduction was caught on camera. In the video, Hailey’s dad, Steve, introduces her to the smiley popstar, then rocking his signature side-swept hair. The two shake hands as Hailey shyly says, “Nice to meet you.” Little did they know this encounter would be the first of very, very many.
February 2, 2011: Justin and Hailey take a photo together at the Never Say Never premiere.
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Two years passed before the pair finally reunited—and, once again, Hailey’s dad did the orchestrating. The three of them posed for a photo on the purple carpet of the New York City premiere of Justin’s documentary Never Say Never.
November 10, 2014: Justin and Hailey are spotted at church together.
It appears Justin and Hailey’s awkward first encounters served as the start of a budding friendship, as a few years later they were seen attending Hillsong Church in New York, along with mutual friend Kendall Jenner.
December 15, 2014: Justin and Hailey insist they are “just friends.”
It didn’t take long for fans to start speculating that Justin and Hailey might have a stronger bond than they were letting on. However, both of them took steps to put the rumors to rest.
During an interview with E! News, the model said, “The thing about that is I’ve known him since I was so young, since I was like 13. And we’ve just been good friends over the years, and we have just stayed close, and there’s nothing more to it than that.”
The pop singer echoed Hailey’s sentiment by posting a photo of the two of them on Instagram with the caption, “People are crazy. I’m super single and this is my good friend u would know otherwise.”
January 1, 2015: Justin and Hailey celebrate New Year’s Eve together.
The pair took their friendship into the new year, which Justin commemorated with a video posted to Instagram. In the flick, the two chant “Happy New Year” next to each other while fireworks go off in the background.
December 2015: They go on vacation together.
Relationship rumors resurfaced with full force when Hailey joined Justin and his family on a vacation to Tulum, Mexico. The “Baby” singer documented the trip on Instagram through several posts, including one where he pulls a rubber band off Hailey’s wrist while holding his hair up. In the snap, he goes shirtless, wearing nothing but briefs and basketball shorts, while Hailey wears an oversized T-shirt, itty-bitty shorts, and a trucker hat. If that doesn’t scream “more than friends,” I’m not sure what does…
December 31, 2015: Justin and Hailey share an NYE smooch.
Tongues went wagging when Justin and Hailey were spotted getting hot and heavy during Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Year’s Eve party in St. Barts. The pair rang in 2016 with a smooch, and Justin wasn’t shy about sharing the news. A couple days later, he posted two hot photos from their trip to Instagram.
February 11, 2016: They set the record straight about their relationship.
Hailey confirmed to E! News that she and Justin were romantically involved, but they weren’t ready to put a label on anything yet out of fear of complicating their relationship. “We are not an exclusive couple,” she said. “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.”
Justin reiterated Hailey’s sentiment during an interview with GQ, stating that Hailey is “someone I really love,” but he doesn’t “want to be held down by anything.”
“I don’t want to feel like the girl I love is an added responsibility,” he continued. “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.”
August 2016: Justin and Hailey call it quits.
Justin and Hailey’s relationship is short-lived, as they called it quits after just a few months together. Things get icy for the two when Justin unfollows the model amid his new relationship with Sofia Richie, which basically resulted in two years of the silent treatment.
Hailey opened up about their breakup during a 2019 interview with Vogue. “Negative things happened that we still need to talk about and work through,” she told the publication. “‘Fizzled’ would not be the right word—it was more like a very dramatic excommunication. There was a period where if I walked into a room, he would walk out.”
June 2018: They rekindle their romance.
Hailey and Justin put their differences aside and realize they’re just better together. The two were spotted in Miami, first at a Church conference and later at a club, engaging in some sweet PDA. Then, things really heated up during a trip to New York when they were spotted making out all over the city.
July 7, 2018: They get engaged.
Justin pops the question during a romantic dinner in the Bahamas, as reported by TMZ. A couple days later, Justin confirms the news with a sweet Instagram tribute.
“Hailey I am soooo in love with everything about you! So committed to spending my life getting to know every single part of you loving you patiently and kindLY,” he wrote in the caption. “I promise to lead our family with honor and integrity letting Jesus through his Holy Spirit guide us in everything we do and every decision we make. My heart is COMPLETELY and FULLY YOURS and I will ALWAYS put you first! You are the love of my life Hailey Baldwin and I wouldn’t want to spend it with anybody else. You make me so much better and we compliment eachother so well!! Can’t wait for the best season of life yet!”
September 13, 2018: They get married.
The sweethearts officially tie the knot at a courthouse in lower Manhattan.
November 2018: Hailey changes her Instagram handle to “Bieber.”
It isn’t really official until it’s Instagram official, right? Two months after obtaining their marriage license, Hailey makes some cosmetic changes to her social media presence by changing her username to “Hailey Rhode Baldwin Bieber.”
September 30, 2019: They have a second wedding ceremony in South Carolina.
The wedding bells ring again for Hailey and Justin more than a year after they tied the knot (the first time). They celebrate their union with a fairytale wedding at the Montage Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina, witnessed by more than 150 friends and family.
February 2022: Hailey shares where she stands on having kids.
Hailey tells WSJ Magazine it might be a minute before they have little Biebers running around. “I think ideally in the next couple of years we would try,” she told the publication. “But there’s a reason they call it try, right? 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.”
March 10, 2022: Hailey has a mini-stroke.
Hailey revealed on Instagram that she was hospitalized for a mini-stroke and later detailed the event in a YouTube video, describing it as “one of the scariest moments I’ve ever been through.” She explained that she and Justin were having breakfast when she started experiencing “stroke-like symptoms.” It was later discovered that these symptoms were due to a small hole in her heart, which required surgery to close.
Justin also opened up about the toll Hailey’s medical incident took on him during a concert in Denver. He reassured fans, saying, “She’s okay, she’s good. It’s been scary, you know, it’s been really scary but I know for a fact that God has her in the palm of his hands.”
April 3, 2022: Hailey and Justin enjoy a PDA-filled Grammys date.
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The Biebers couldn’t keep their hands off of each other at the Grammys. They shamelessly shared several smooches, soft touches, and loving gazes across the red carpet.
May 2, 2022: Justin gets real about marriage.
During an interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, Justin bares it all. He opened up about both his mental health and marriage struggles.
“It’s a journey. I remember when I first got married, I hit a little bit of an emotional breakdown because I thought marriage was going to fix all my problems and it didn’t,” he said. “It just kind of was a reflection of like, man, you’re a bit of a hypocrite man.”
He continued, “You want your wife to do something that you’re not doing and it’s like, it’s hard sometimes to look in the mirror and really have to realize, man, maybe you’re not the person that you necessarily thought that you were. And that’s just a result of trauma and life circumstances.”
June 2022: Justin is diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
The Biebers take “in sickness and in health” seriously when on the heels of Hailey’s stroke, Justin is revealed he has Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left half of his face paralyzed.
A source told People the news was “overwhelming” for the couple but “they’re unbreakable.” Hailey echoed this sentiment during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, where she described the event as a “really out-of-nowhere, weird situation,” but she and Justin are “closer than ever.”
August 16, 2022: Hailey describes Justin as her “best friend.”
Hailey talked about her and Justin’s close bond during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “[Justin’s] still the person that I wanna be rushing back to,” she said. “I might fly somewhere and go do a job, but I can’t wait to come back and hang out. And I feel like that’s because of the effort that’s been put in on both sides. At the end of the day, like, he’s my best friend, but it still does take a lot of work to make it work.”
February 25, 2023: Justin gushes over Hailey.
A couple months later, while interviewing Hailey for Vogue Australia Justin returns Hailey’s sentiment by saying, “My favorite thing about being married is honestly the companionship I feel we have. Genuinely, you are my best friend in the entire world. There’s nobody I would rather spend more time with or do anything with.”
September 13, 2023: The Biebers celebrate five years of marriage.
Justin and Hailey commemorated five years of marriage with heartwarming Instagram tributes to one another. Their milestone-marking slideshows were fittingly packed with PDA.
“To the most precious, my beloved. 5 years. You have captivated my heart. I know from the depths of my soul down to my bones that this journey with you will only exceed our wildest expectations. So let’s keep dreaming big baby. Cheers to forever and ever. I love you with every fiber of my being,” Justin wrote in his caption.
March 2024: Rumors of relationship troubles surface.
Rumors of relationship issues and divorce were already catching fire online when Hailey’s dad, Stephen Baldwin, reposted an Instagram video of Victor Marx, founder of The All Things Possible Ministry, asking his followers to pray for Hailey and Justin.
Hailey immediately shut down speculation by posting an Instagram story on March 5 that read: “Just FYI, the stories and constant ‘blind items’ I see on TikTok are 100% of the time wrong. Made out of thin air… Come from the land of delusion…So I know it may be fun feeding into these stories but just know they’re always false xx sorry to spoil it.”
Weeks later, a source confirmed to People that Justin and Hailey were “doing really well.” They clarified the situation further by saying, “There’s no divorce and no truth to that whatsoever. They are very, very happy.”
April 2024: Justin and Hailey get cozy at Coachella.
And with one video, all the noise about Hailey and Justin having relationship troubles went poof. The couple was captured sharing sweet moments with each other during Lana Del Rey’s Coachella set. In the flick, Hailey wraps her arm around Justin’s waist while he softly kisses her forehead and caresses her hair. In another sweet tribute to her man, Hailey wore cute “J” earrings.