For context, Hailey started dating Justin (again) in 2018, shortly after his breakup with Selena. They became engaged that July and married just a few short weeks later.
With a timeline that tight, it looked a wee bit sketchy, leading many to believe that Justin had been cheating on Selena with Hailey.
Well, Hailey just addressed those rumors on the Call Her Daddypodcast, stressing that there was never any kind of overlap in her relationship with the "Baby" singer.
"No, not one time," she told the host, per E! Online. "When him and I ever started like hooking up or like anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship ever, at any point. It's not my character to mess with someone's relationship. I would just never do that. I was raised better than that. I'm not interested in doing that and I never was."
She continued, "I think that there are situations where you can still kind of have back and forth with someone but even that was not the situation. I can say period point blank I was never with him when he was in a relationship with anybody. That's the end of it. And I had been involved with him since I was 18.”
Hailey, 25, did say she can understand the optics of it all, but added that, "That was a situation where I know for a fact that it was the right thing for them to close that door; they were not in a relationship at that time."
"But, of course, there's a very long history there and it's not my relationship. It has nothing to do with me so I respect that a lot, but I know that it closed a chapter and I think it was the best thing that could've happened for him to move on and be engaged and get married and move on with his life in that way."
Hailey went on, addressing the criticism they faced when they did get married because of how speedy it seemed. In hindsight, she said, she can agree that it did seem "really drastic and really crazy." But she ultimately stands by their decision.
"That was what we felt was a decision between the two of us and it felt correct for the two of us at the time and clearly we were right because here we are four years later," she said.
"And I think just given the timeline of where he was at before we got back together and what was going on...there was just a lot happening," Hailey continued. "But I will say too, the only people that really know the truth of the situation and what the timeline really was and how it happened and how it went down are like me and him. Perception is a really tricky thing because when you're watching something from the outside, you can see it one way when it may not really be the reality of what happened behind closed doors."
Whatever the case, Hailey also made sure to note that there's "no drama" between her and Selena, either. "I respect her, there's no drama personally," she shared, mentioning that they've even had a conversation.
“That’s why I’m like, it’s all respect. It’s all love," Hailey continued. "That’s also why I feel like if everybody on our side knows what happened and we’re good and we could walk away from it with clarity and respect, then, like, that’s fine."
She added that she got "a lot of peace" from her conversation with Selena, but that she also realizes the internet will continue with whatever narratives they want. “It is what it is. You’re never going to be able to correct every narrative and there’s gonna be new ones that come. It’s never gonna end and that’s why I get to the point — that’s why I didn’t speak about a lot of this stuff.”
You can check out the podcast episode here to hear the rest of what Hailey had to say.
