While gossip sites seem to think Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are at war over his non-romance with longtime pal Hailey Baldwin, the pop princess recently declared she has “so much respect and love” for her former beau in a recent radio interview.
Speculation about Jelena raged during the pair’s on-and-off four year relationship. Then, all hell broke loose following their most recent split in October and the release of Selena’s emotional, autobiographical breakup epic “The Heart Wants What It Wants” last month.
However, during a phone interview with Norway’s NRJ radio on Thursday, the songstress had nothing but good things to say about Justin when asked if the single had helped her to move on.
“I definitely have so much respect and love for him,” the 22-year-old said of her ex. “And going in the studio is just very therapeutic like any other artist … It was my way of having it be a message more to people in general.”
Selena continued, “People everywhere feel this feeling and they should understand when anybody goes through that… they just can’t help what they want and what they love.”
Inevitably, the conversation turned to the pop princess’ dating status. We’ll admit we were interested to hear her reply after endless rumors from the ever unreliable Hollywood Life .
“Selena, are you dating at the moment?” the host asked.
Sounding a little taken aback, the Latina replied, “No, I’m not, actually,” before adding that she “doesn’t even know how to work” the dating app Tinder .
A funny moment came up later when Selena was asked for her opinion about Justin’s new platinum blonde ‘do.
Laughing it off, the starlet ducked the question, saying, “That’s for him. I’ll let him answer all that.”
Not surprisingly, her non-reply has set off a ton of “ Selena Gomez disses Justin Bieber’s new hair” headlines, because that’s how desperate gossip sites are for there to be drama between these two.
Speaking of which, following E! News’ recent report confirming Hailey and Justin are not in fact dating — contrary to Hollywood Life’s series of stories claiming they were — the site is still trying to make something sexual out of their friendship.
Cue headlines: “ Selena Gomez : Should She Be Threatened By Hailey Baldwin?” followed by “Selena Gomez Channels Jackie O. In Sexiest Selfie Ever: For Justin Bieber?” “Justin Bieber Still Pining For Selena Gomez Even After Hailey Baldwin.” And so on.
Weeks before her standout performance of “Heart” at the American Music Awards show last month, Selena opened up to Ryan Seacrest about how Justin felt about the song and its video — and their post-romance relationship.
She said: “And he has heard [the song] and he has seen the video, and it’s something that I feel like girls need [to] hear, and it’s something I’m willing to share with people.”
The starlet continued, “He thought it was beautiful [but] I think it is really hard at first.”
Selena went on to say, “I support him, I think I always will. I’m upset when he is upset, I’m happy when he’s happy. I don’t want anything to ever happen to him, it hurts me.”
Is the Disney alum still hung up on Justin? It sort of sounds like it, doesn’t it?
If so, consider “The Heart Wants What It Wants” as a standing answer to every question you might have.
[Images via WENN]