Selena Gomez Calls Justin Bieber Breakup ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me’

Selena Gomez is opening up about how the end of her relationship with Justin Bieber in 2018 launched her into a wonderful new chapter of life. In her new Apple TV+ documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, Gomez calls her split with Bieber after six years of dating on and off “the best thing that ever happened to me” in the end. 

Sharing the process behind writing her 2020 hit song “Lose You to Love Me,” Gomez revealed she wanted the song to be able to express all her emotions about the split, which was quickly followed by Bieber’s engagement and marriage to wife Hailey Bieber. “I text [songwriters] Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter and said, ‘I think I’m ready to just say I’m sad,’” she shared in the television documentary. “We wrote the song in 45 minutes. The fastest song I’ve ever written.” 

She continued, “It’s about more than a lost love. It’s me learning to choose myself, to choose life, but also hoping that people can find grace and peace in that too. The song is about knowing that you completely lost every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again.” Following her breakup with Bieber, the Rare Beauty founder said being in the spotlight made everything more difficult to handle. 

“Everything was so public,” she explained. “I felt haunted by a past relationship that no one wanted to let go of. Then I just moved past it, and I wasn’t afraid anymore.” The Only Murders in the Building star said that going through such a dark time eventually led her to where she is today, however, which makes it a blessing. “I feel like I had to go through the worst possible heartbreak ever and then just forgetting everything at the drop of the hand, it was really confusing,” she shared. “But I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The pop star didn’t go into much detail about her relationship with Bieber in the documentary but said it was tiring always feeling connected to him in her career. “When am I just going to be good enough by myself?” she asked through tears during rehearsals for her 2016 Revival tour when asked to do a song with Bieber by her record label. “When am I gonna be good just by myself, not needed anybody to be associated with?”