Recently, Selena Gomez opened up about how Justin Bieber was emotionally abusive during their lengthy, on-again off-again relationship.
Now, Justin is talking about his life, his marriage, and admitting that yes, he was not an ideal boyfriend to Selena.
Justin Bieber spoke to Apple Music about his new album, Changes. He also spoke about just about everything else.
It turns out that Justin took time to himself before getting back with Hailey. He says: "I'd let her know prior to the tour when we were hanging a lot."
He recalls: 'I said, 'Listen, I'm still really hurt and still trying to figure out my way, and I'm not ready to make a commitment to you in a way that...'"
"'I just don't want to say something and do the opposite,'" Justin quotes himself as having cautioned her.
Justin explains that he wanted to avoid letting her down "because I was at the point where I'd done that in the past."
"And I just was honest with her," he admits. "I was like, 'I'm not in a place to be faithful.'"
Justin continues: "and all this sort of stuff, that I wanted to be, but I just wasn't there yet."
"I think I was just hurt from my previous relationship," he admits, without ctually name-dropping Selena.
"I think I still was dealing with a lot of unforgiveness and all that sort of stuff," Justin suggests.
"To be honest," he confesses, "I don't think I even knew what I was really struggling with at the time."
"I don't think I knew I was dealing with unforgiveness," Justin reiterates.
"I was just in a place where I knew I didn't want to tell [Hailey] one thing and..." he says, trailing off before rephrasing.
"I felt like she respected me at the time," Justin says of his wife, "and I had a lot of respect for her."
"And so," he reasons, "I just didn't want to say something and then she'd see me off doing some other thing."
That's called growth, people.
"But either way," Justin says, "she loved me and seeing me with other people hurt her."
"And so with that being said," Justin recalls, "she went out and did things that hurt me."
"And so just this hurt, I've hurt her, she hurt me," he describes.
"And then before tour we just really stopped talking," Justin notes. "I was really upset."
Is this a music interview or a couples therapy session?
"Before that, in my previous relationship," Justin says, "I went off and just went crazy and went wild, just was being reckless."
For years, he was in a toxic on-again, off-again relationship with Selena Gomez. He was the toxic part.
"This time I took the time to really build myself and focus on me," he notes.
"And try to make the right decisions and all that sort of stuff," Justin adds. "And yeah, I got better."
"You'd hear like, 'Oh, he's doing so well,' and she would be so pissed off," Justin says of Hailey.
He explains her reaction "because she's like, 'He's not doing well without me.'"
Hailey was present for the interview, and this is when she chimes in with an explanation.
She says: "You want to think you're happy for someone, it sucks to hear that they're happy without you."
Justin credits Jesus for his turnaround.
Speaking of his previous path towards personal destruction, he says that only his faith prevented his demise, saying: "Yeah, I would have for sure."
"One hundred percent, yeah..." Justin continues. "It would have been no bueno."
"It was bad…I don't know if I'd be alive," he expresses. "It was dark, really dark."
"So I'm very, very grateful to have influences in my life," Justin emphasizes.
Influences "that have played a huge part in me seeing their relationship with Jesus and their relationship with their wives, and their relationship with their kids."
Justin speaks of looking at these influences "and saying, 'That's what I want,' and I'm striving after that."
"She is definitely the reason, there'd be no story without her," Justin praises his wife.
Continuing to speak of Hailey, he says: "She just ties it all together."
"She's giving me substance to talk about," Justin adds, "she's the person that I'm learning to love unconditionally, start a family with."
"So regardless if I sell another record," Justin expresses, "I mean, I have a lot of peace."
He has peace "just knowing that I have the rest of my life to build a relationship with a solid foundation of trust and patience,"
Justin adds: "and all the things that go into building a healthy relationship."
