Trolls Fueled Hailey Bieber’s “Self-Hatred” After She Gave Birth

It’s been a season of change for Hailey Bieber since she and husband Justin Bieber welcomed their first son, Jack Blues, in August 2024. One constant, though, is the persistent speculation about the couple’s relationship. The new mom recently opened up to Vogue about her postpartum period, and she admitted that the never-ending internet hate made an already “very difficult” experience harder on her.

“Self-Hatred” And Internet Trolls

Bieber called giving birth “the hardest thing [she has] ever done” — but there were more challenges ahead. She admitted to suffering from body dysmorphia afterward, including feeling unexpected levels of “self-hatred.” At times, she’d even seek out negative comments about her appearance online, she told Vogue.

“You’re not the same person that you were before. You change head to toe,” Bieber said. “And I think there was a minute where I kept really hyper-​fixating on getting back to what I was. And then I had to go through that acceptance of, I’m not going back. So it’s really about how do I want to move forward? Who do I want to be?”

On top of that, the speculation about her marriage has been relentless. She said it’s made the already “very difficult” process of “learning a new version of [herself]” even harder.

“To be doing that all the while going on the internet every day and people being like, They’re getting divorced and They’re this and They’re not happy: It is such a mindf*ck,” Bieber said. “I cannot even begin to explain it. It’s a crazy life to live.”

Hitting Back

Bieber, who told Vogue that she used to be “not so confrontational,” once again set the record straight on her marriage. “My real life is that I get to wake up to my beautiful family and my son and my friends and I have people that know me and love me and I love them,” she said.

Justin backed her up in an email to Vogue’s Alessandra Codinha for the cover story, saying that marrying Hailey is “the smartest thing [he’s] ever done” and that he’s “walking in the days [he] always dreamed of.”

When her Vogue issue dropped on May 20, Justin shared the image to his Instagram and admitted he’d once told her during a “huge fight” that “she would never be on the cover” of the vaunted fashion magazine. Acknowledging it was “so mean,” he went on to address Bieber, writing, “So baby u already know but forgive me for saying u wouldn’t get a vogue cover cuz clearly i was sadly mistaken.”

He also recently addressed struggling with the constant scrutiny they face. In an April 24 Instagram post, he referenced “those people who are mean and hurtful” and said that “hurt people hurt people.” Then he took a left turn, adding, “And honestly if I was u it would be hard not to be jealous if I saw me and Hailey going so brazzzzyy.” He went on to describe them as “the Jones’s [sic] that are impossible to keep up with.”