Selena Gomez Real Talks On Loving Justin Bieber: ‘All I Saw Was One Thing’

Selena Gomez’s flawless new single “The Heart Wants What It Wants” is slaying opinions and charts and has catapulted the actress-singer out of a perception of simply being Justin Bieber’s on-off girlfriend.

But the songstress is also — rightly — defending her choices and her continuing “support” of her first love, as she told Ryan Seacrest in a live interview on Thursday.

The radio and TV host aired his candid chat with the pop princess just hours after Selena premiered the heart-wrenching, mesmerizing music video to her stunning, Bieber-inspired song.

Already No. 1 in numerous countries on iTunes since release, the Rock Mafia co-written lead single is a cut from Selena’s compilation album For You, which drops on November 24.

On Seacrest’s On Air With Ryan radio show, the 22-year-old talked openly about her (as Ryan’s site put it),”on-the-rocks relationship with Justin Bieber,” recording the devastating, spoken introduction to the song, her future plans and more.

Gomez’s recent split with Justin and the relentless, intense media and public interest in the Jelena relationship adds real poignancy to the interview. While the Canadian’s legal cases and struggle to find balance have made headlines since 2013, Selena, too, faced criticism for following her heart.

The result? The former couple’s romance was turned into tabloid click bait.

Until now, the actress-singer hasn’t publicly told her side of happened in 2012, when she and Justin first broke up (although most feel they have an idea, thanks to Orlando Bloom).

That changes within seconds of the emotional opener to the over-a-year-ago filmed music video, as an in-tears Selena explained.

“But I didn’t realize that feeling so confident and so great about myself, and then it just be completely shattered by one thing. By something so stupid.”

In the clip, the starlet is seen putting her face in her hands after she reveals, “But then you make me feel crazy, you make me feel like it’s my fault. I was in pain.”

Many guys will relate, girls too. Infidelity is as old as the hills. What’s learned on both sides is more important — and useful — than judgment.

To Seacrest’s interview:

Selena revealed she is still close to Justin and supports him, and spoke about his reaction to the video.

“I support him. I think I always will. I’m upset when he’s upset, I’m happy when he’s happy. I don’t want anything bad ever happen to him. It hurts me. That’s all,” she says firmly when asked about the current status of their relationship.

And of the video?

“He thought it was beautiful.” Then, alluding to the raw opening, she added, “I think it was really hard,” before joking that Justin was, “a little jealous of the video guy at first.”

Why did Selena chose to release “The Heart Wants What It Wants” and how did it feel to get that honest?

In addition to a desire to “start sharing” her For You album, she tells Ryan, “I think it was just time.” Then adds, “I wanted [“The Heart Wants What It Wants”] to kind of be the wrap of the year and then next year, I’ll have some really great stuff.”

Of recording the “therapeutic” intro, she says studio engineers “taped the mic underneath the table when I was shooting the video.”

“I went in and I went into the room by myself, and I looked at the actual mirror in the music video.” She added, “I had a conversation [with] myself to every question I had in my mind in that moment: ‘Wow, this feeling changes everything and you can’t help it.'”

Seacrest’s site notes that Selena intends to head into 2015 with a “clean slate,” using the single as a chapter closer. Notably, the starlet wasn’t quite as cut and dry as that.

Instead, she says, “I think in a lot of ways, I’m just at peace now” with the “struggle of ‘is it right, is it wrong?'” The Latina added, frankly, “I don’t know what the future holds and that’s exactly what I say in the song.”

Well known for taking her position as a role model seriously, SelGo says she felt the single was “something that I feel like girls need [to] hear,” and is “willing to share with people.”

Later, after brushing off a question asking whether Justin cried watching the video, Gomez insists,

“Honestly, music is an expression, and if you will be that voice for these girls, there are so many people that feel this. This is universal.”

Asked if she was “nervous” about “letting everybody in” on her relationship, Selena points to the harsh judgment she and Justin have received from media and many others.

“Everybody wants to form their own opinions anyway,” she says bluntly. “I think the biggest problem I had this year — even with [Justin] and on his side — is identity.”

“I was trying to figure out what I’m doing and that was the first time I was constantly being kicked down for doing that. When I didn’t know, I just wanted to say — ‘This is what I want, this is where I am in my professional life, things changed in my personal life… in my heart — everything.’ And people just thought, ‘Alright, this is what we think.'”

Admitting she “made some decisions that weren’t great as well,” and “so did he [Justin],” the starlet adds, “That’s why I feel like we went through all that, to only make us better.”

After explaining that “The Heart Wants What It Wants” was meant to come out three times but didn’t due to changes in her life, Selena says the single and its timing was about telling her story, returning fire to her critics and drawing a line under her relationship with Justin.

“‘Ok, this is what I’m about to say and I need to say it when I’m ready,'” she recalls.

“And I think after this year, it’s the perfect way to end the year, it’s the perfect way to end a chapter in a way. It’s like, this is what I’ll say about every single person that has judged me for every decision that I’ve made.”

“For every person, [and] heart that is being judged for something they’ve done — and now I just want to release it.”

Selena says she learned about herself in her relationship with Justin and is looking forward to the future.

“I want to keep going and I want to work on things, and have all the focus just be on what I love and have fun, and new music, and a new chapter in my life. I’m excited,” she shared with a smile. “[I learned] how to love myself first,” she reveals of lessons. “And not just in a relationship, just my everyday life.”

Confessing to “sobbing” in bathrooms before going on stage in the past and letting “people pull at me in every direction,” Gomez reveals the “biggest thing” she has learned is to stop when she “need[s] to stop” and “need[s] to feel, and I don’t care what comes with that — or what people wanna say.”

She continued, “It’s normal. I’m supposed to keep going and that’s all I want to do.”

Gomez was animated when she revealed she is working on television projects, adding she would return to the small screen.

“Yes, eventually. I think TV has just gotten so bomb, and I’m starting to develop a few TV shows.” She added, “It’s just fun. I love that world. I’d go back.”

And more music is coming. “I have been in the studio this entire year. So, I have had a lot of fun just playing and just having fun. Whether it was with the old music and incorporating new music and just writing for fun in my mind — in my heart, or whatever.”

Selena is set to perform “The Heart Wants What It Wants” live for the very first time at the American Music Awards on November 23 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.

To listen and watch the Seacrest interview at source, click here.

[Images via Youtube Vevo/ Sadao Turner/Ryan Seacrest Enterprises.]