Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber's beef has taken a dark turn. Suddenly, Selena is defending Hailey, who's "receiving death threats" over the drama. Suffice to say, it sounds like fans have taken the controversy too far.
On March 24, Selena clarified that Hailey "reached out" to her to either squash the beef or at least clarify that she's been receiving a massive amount of backlash over the ongoing drama.
"[I] really want this all to stop," Selena continued. The message was passed along in an Instagram Story, and Selena didn't clarify her status with Hailey.
For those unaware, the Selena Gomez v. Hailey Bieber controversy began in late February when Hailey and Kylie Jenner seemed shading Selena in a TikTok video where they lipsynced to a song with interpretable lyrics.
Hailey and Kyle made subsequent posts about eyebrows that stans, again, interpreted as quiet insults to Selena.
What Hailey and Kylie purported to be innocent jokes taken out of context were instead viewed by stans as hostile disses to Selena.
In a show of support for her reformed foe, Selena even began following Hailey Bieber on Instagram.
Selena's supporters have long perceived Hailey and Selena as frenemies since Hailey married Justin Bieber, Selena's former beau.
As such, Selena Gomez' fans were quick to point out that while Selena was willing to step in to silence critics who've taken their hate too far, Justin Bieber has remained silent on the entire Selena/Hailey situation.
In fairness, Justin probably stayed out of it because the drama really didn't have anything to do with him but stans gonna stan.
Back when the beef began, Selena Gomez took a social media break as Team Selena came out of the woodwork to dominate the comment sections of Hailey and Kylie's Instagram posts with insults and jokes.
Reading through any of the recent uploads from either Hailey or Kylie is like getting direct messages from a Selena Gomez support group.
For her part, Selena has maintained a low profile in the interim.
She was only seen in public to film new scenes for her show Only Murders In the Bulding and only posting the rare unfiltered selfie to rave support.
As Hailey and Kylie lost Instagram followers, Selena's base only grew; she became the most-followed woman on Instagram during the drama.
Similarly, Hailey and Kylie still average a couple million "Likes" on their Instagram posts while Selena's first selfie since the controversy began attracted over 23 million "Likes."
Perhaps Selena's call for peace will mark the end of the controversy, though it's hard to imagine her fans entirely forgiving Hailey and Kylie for the perceived slights, especially since neither Hailey nor Kylie have apologized or even addressed the beef at all.
But even if they don't feel like they did anything wrong, it'd only be in Hailey and Kylie's best interest to offer some sort of mea culpa and get back in Selena's good graces.
The internet doesn't forget or forgive.
