HOW HE’S WINNING HER BACK
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez reheat their romance.
Two years ago, she sang about “being sick of the same old love,” but Selena Gomez isn’t living life by her lyrics. Since breaking up with R&B artist The Weeknd, the singer has rebounded with Justin Bieber— infamous to Gomez fans as the boyfriend who broke her heart. The couple are spending nearly every day together, doing wholesome things like riding their bikes, going to services at the reformed bad boy’s Hillsong Church and reconnecting over intimate meals. On Nov. 3, after they attended the 2017 conference of the Australian-originated church, the pop stars enjoyed a private dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse in Los Angeles, arriving at 10 PM and staying until midnight. According to an onlooker, Bieber, 23, arranged for them to be seated after the restaurant had closed so he and Gomez, 25, could have the place to themselves. “They’re figuring things out as they spend time together,” an insider close to the pair tells WHO.
There’s a lot of baggage to sort through. Starting in 2010, the pair had a roller-coaster romance that continued for two more years after they split for the first time in 2012, amid cheating rumours. In August 2016, the two
feuded on social media after Bieber hooked up with Sofia Richie, and they didn’t speak for a year. According to multiple sources, Bieber was moved to reach out to his old flame in September, after learning she was recovering from a kidney transplant (Gomez suffers from lupus). Says a friend of the pop idol: “He was very worried and is so relieved she’s doing well.”
While they’re enjoying hanging out again, the pair are taking things slowly. “Spending time together makes them both very happy,” says the friend. “For Justin, no-one ever came close to comparing to Selena.” The rekindled friendship, however, was not responsible for her split from The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye), 27, sources previously told WHO. “It’s been hard with [The Weeknd] being on tour and [Gomez] shooting in New York. That wasn’t easy for them. It’s over for now, but they’re still in touch,” a source said. Two days after her break-up was announced, Gomez was all smiles with Bieber during a leisurely bike ride in LA on Nov. 1. That evening, she cheered on her heart-throb ex at his ice-hockey game. Later, she wore Bieber’s New Jersey Devils jersey as she left the arena.
The ball is in Gomez’s court, sources agree, and Bieber is a happy man in the meantime. “Justin is doing
great. Spending all week with Selena is the dream week for him,” says a Bieber source. “He is trying to take things slowly, but it hasn’t really worked. He is too excited to spend time with her.” The star believes he can afford to sit tight, says the source: “He is waiting for Selena to tell him that they are officially back together. He doesn’t feel any rush, because no doubt they are already emotionally back together.”
Gomez’s inner circle frets about her reuniting with the controversy-prone Canadian, but no-one is surprised. “Justin was Selena’s first love. She’s never been able to get over him,” says the insider. Even during Bieber’s many legal scrapes, “she always saw the best in him.”
When sparks first flew, Bieber and Gomez were teen stars on the rise. In 2010, Gomez broke Beliebers’ hearts around the globe when she was spotted holding hands with him in Philadelphia, though they downplayed romance rumours. In February 2011, the young stars stepped out publicly as a couple for the first time at the Vanity Fair Oscars party, with Gomez telling Seventeen magazine, “I don’t like hiding.” Bieber shared more openly: “She’s hot. Of course every guy likes the girl to be hot, which Selena is. But ... I like to be around people who make me laugh and share my sense of humour. That’s Selena for sure,” he told WHO. “She is a really great person and I think she has the best smile in the world.”
By November 2012, they called it quits (strike one) but were spotted kissing at an airport days later. After two more angst-ridden years, the on-off romance stalled again, though rumours that they were still on persisted well into 2015. In September of that year, Bieber reflected on why their relationship fell apart: “We were so in love. Nothing else mattered. We were all about each other. But when it’s like that and you get your value from that, people will always disappoint you,” he told Complex magazine. “I moved in with my girlfriend when I was 18. Started my own life with her. It was a marriage kind of thing. Living with a girl, it was just too much at that age ... When stuff would happen, I would lose my freakin’ mind, and she would lose her mind, and we would fight so hard because we were so invested in each other.”
Now older and wiser, they’re set to try again. Aside from gaining back Gomez’s trust, Bieber is working on winning over her loved ones. “Justin now seems mature enough to realise Selena deserves the best,” says the insider. “He will do anything to prove he can be a great boyfriend.” Gomez wants to give him that chance. “She’s always held out hope that one day the timing and circumstances would be right,” says the insider. “He will always have a special place in her heart.”
“He will always have a special place in her heart” —an insider