Selena Gomez Shares How End Of 8-Year Relationship w/ Justin Bieber Led To Her Instagram Exit: ‘I Had Just Gotten My Heart Broken’

Selena Gomez went on an extensive hiatus from Instagram five years ago — and now, we know why.

The Rare Beauty founder has revealed that her choice to leave the social media site coincided with her official split from Justin Bieber in 2018. The pair called it quits in the spring of that year, marking the end of an eight-year on-and-off relationship.

Justin Bieber‘s relationship with Hailey Baldwin, the daughter of Stephen Baldwin, was announced shortly after, and things moved quickly for the two. After a month, they were engaged and in September 2018, married.

Selena Gomez said,
“I had just gotten my heart broken. I didn’t need to see what everyone was doing.”
She added,
“Then there were those moments of not feeling positive about how I looked because of what I’d see on Instagram. Wow, I wish my body looked like that.”

The Wizards of Waverly Place star discussed how it was challenging to deal with physical changes as she grew out of her “teenage body.” She added,
“None of the sample sizes fit, and I would feel ashamed about that. But how irrational is it to think a normal woman’s body won’t change?”
Selena Gomez — who has been romantically linked to Zedd, Charlie Puth and The Weeknd in the years after — was also dealing with the effects of having bipolar disorder in the same year she and Justin Bieber split. In 2020, she disclosed her mental illness during Miley Cyrus‘ Instagram live show Bright Minded.

Gomez said,
“I grew up being a people pleaser. I had a responsibility at a very young age – young people were looking up to me. I didn’t know who I was. Having that responsibility would make me walk on eggshells a lot.”

She added,
“I thought maybe it would be damaging to tell people who I am. It started to become a threat that freaked me out. Well, if you’re not right, then you can’t work.”
As previously reported, the Only Murders in the Building star shared earlier this year that she took an IG break because she was frustrated with receiving hurtful comments comparing her to an ex-boyfriend’s current partner, presumably Hailey Baldwin.  

Gomez explained,
“I never got the chance to go to an actual high school. The world was my high school for the longest time, and I started getting inundated with information that I didn’t want. I went through a hard time in a breakup and I didn’t want to see any of the [feedback]—not necessarily about the relationship, but the opinions of me versus [someone] else.”

She continued,

“People can call me ugly or stupid and I’m like, Whatever. But these people get detailed. They write paragraphs that are so specific and mean. I would constantly be crying. I constantly had anxiety…I couldn’t do it anymore. It was a waste of my time.”
At the time, Gomez revealed that TikTok was the only social media platform that she had on her phone, saying she found it to be less hostile. She added,
“There are wonderful things about social media—connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories. But usually that’s filtered through [for me now]. I created a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As far as comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.”