Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber drama explained

Three separate headshots of young women dressed up for events

March 7, 2023 1:07 PM PT

There’s a feud going on, allegedly. It involves Selena Gomez, Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner, allegedly. It happened on social media, allegedly.

Wait. That last part is a fact.

(Heads-up: This article may be based on a true story. How true? No guarantees.)

Anyway, there’s been a lot of noise around a vanishingly small amount of drama that (allegedly) moved a lot of people to suddenly hit the “unfollow” button on Instagram, maybe. Follow along as we re-create that feud/drama/mean-girls fan fantasy.

Things we know for sure (ish)

On Feb. 21, on TikTok and in her Instagram Stories, Gomez (allegedly) posted a series of videos. In the first, she mimicked saying “My name … my name is Bella Hadid.” But words placed on that video read, according to Women’s Health U.K., “I wish I was as pretty as Bella Hadid.” That was followed by another video where Gomez said in her own voice, “Instead, this is me. I laminated my brows too much.” Then there was another: “My name is Selena Gomez … see, it doesn’t even sound sexy.”

The same day, about three hours later, Jenner posted a picture of herself in her Instagram Stories with the words “this was an accident ?????” positioned over her eyebrows. This was interpreted as Jenner shading Gomez. Because, um, both posts included eyebrows?

Also the same day, Bieber posted a TikTok featuring herself, Kendall Jenner and singer Justine Skye lip-syncing to the words “I’m not saying she deserved it, but I’m saying God’s timing is always right.” She later deleted the post, but others have since reposted it. Were they talking directly to Gomez? Some Very Online People seem to think so.

On Feb. 22, commenting on a video in which a TikTok user speculated that Kylie Jenner had thrown shade at Gomez, the youngest Kardashian-Jenner (allegedly) wrote, “this is reaching. no shade towards selena ever and i didn’t see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly.”

Gomez commented back (allegedly), “Agreed @kyliejenner. It’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie!” We say “allegedly” because last time we looked there were about 25,000 comments on the post. People had to quote yet another outlet to capture that last comment.

Also falling into the “facts” category: Selena Gomez dated Justin Bieber on and off from 2011 through 2018. Hailey Bieber dated Justin Bieber from 2015 to 2016, then got engaged to him soon after he and Gomez said goodbye for good. The couple got married at a courthouse in September 2018, then did the wedding thing again a year later, because why not.

Fans of the Bieber-Gomez and Bieber-Baldwin (Hailey’s maiden name; she’s the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin) romances have kept a semblance of an alleged feud alive, and it seems to have reignited now.

What was the fallout?

Gomez announced Feb. 23 that she was taking time off from social media. That was the same day she dethroned Kylie Jenner as the most followed woman on Instagram. Only soccer’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, plus Instagram itself, have more followers.

“I love who I am, and yeah, I’m going to be taking a second from social media ’cause this is a little silly,” Gomez told her fans. “And I’m 30, I’m too old for this. But I love you guys so much and I will see you guys sooner than later.”

On Feb. 28, DailyMail.com reported that Jenner had lost “an estimated one million followers” on Instagram in the wake of the (alleged) shade, dropping from 380 million to 379 million followers. By Monday, however, she had 380 million again. According to social media stats site Social Blade, she’s down about 129,000 followers in the last 30 days, during which time a lot more than EyebrowGate has happened.

To put that in numbers humans can understand, that’s like selling a Kylie Lip Kit for $32 for a while, only to wake up one day and find out it’s worth eight cents less. And then seeing a couple of days later that it’s worth $31.99 again. Traumatic.

Meanwhile, Gomez added more acolytes than usual during the same period, winding up with her current 395 million followers. Social Blade says she has added 19.3 million in the last 30 days, during which time — again — a lot more than EyebrowGate has happened.

And Hailey Bieber is still only the 118th most followed person on Instagram. She has only 49.4 million people hanging on her every post. That’s down almost a million in the last 30 days, per Social Blade, during which time ... you know the drill. Please let’s not get into correlation versus causation, mm-kay?

Why do we care about this now that it’s March?

Because on Sunday, in comments on a TikTok she made as she returned to the socials, Gomez wrote, “Please, please be kinder and consider others mental health. My heart has been heavy and I only want good for everyone. All my love.”

Yup. She’s back on social media already.

Plus this other thing came up in researching for this story: Hailey Bieber put castor oil on her eyebrows “every night” when she was trying to get them to grow back after teenage over-plucking left them too skinny. Sounds like a bargain path to brow restoration. But we digress.

So what’s the gist of this whole mess?

One more time, because these words might be the wisest Kylie Jenner has ever shared online: “u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly.”

And maybe we should all be following Selena Gomez.