- Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin) and Justin Bieber got married in 2018 after a whirlwind engagement.
- The young couple had known each other for almost a decade and previously dated non-exclusively.
- Here’s a complete timeline of their relationship.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
After an intense, months-long love affair and whirlwind engagement, Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin) and Justin Bieber quietly tied the knot at a New York City courthouse in 2018.
Although the surprise nuptials may have given many fans whiplash, the Biebers had actually known each other for a decade. The young couple met in 2009 and even dated on and off, apparently maintaining their connection in between major life events, struggles, and high-profile relationships with other people.
Sounds confusing? Well, it is. Here’s a complete timeline of Justin and Hailey’s surprisingly serpentine relationship.
Sara Hendricks contributed reporting to an earlier version of this story.
2009: Justin and Hailey met at a fan event.
Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin meeting for the first time in 2009 😍 pic.twitter.com/NwwEcndDSY
— 234Star.com (@234star_) July 8, 2018
According to 234Star.com, Justin and Hailey first met at a fan event (for Justin, not Hailey) in 2009. Hailey, who was 12 at the time, was there with her father Stephen Baldwin and kept her arms firmly crossed throughout their entire encounter. Love did not exactly seem to be in the air, but a lot can change in nine years.
February 2011: Hailey attended another Bieber Fever event.
Stephen Baldwin brought his daughter to the New York City premiere of "Never Say Never" in 2011.
"I was never a superfan, of him or of anyone," Hailey later explained in an interview with Vogue. "It was never that crazed, screaming thing. I didn't think about it in any kind of way except for the fact that he was cute. Everybody had a crush on him. But for the first few years we had a weird age gap."
November 2014: Justin and Hailey went to church together.
Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner & Hailey Baldwin Attend Hillsong Church NYC - http://t.co/BL1ADmJ70z pic.twitter.com/uR1CSrkBBt
— Justin Bieber Zone (@JustBieberZONE) November 10, 2014
In November 2014, Justin and Hailey were spotted together at Hillsong church (with Kendall Jenner), which sparked speculation that they were dating. Around the same time, Justin had broken up with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Selena Gomez. This was not Justin and Gomez's first breakup, and it wouldn't be their last.
December 2014: Justin and Hailey fended off dating rumors.
After being seen together at church, Justin and Hailey denied any romantic involvement.
In an interview with E! News, Hailey said, "I've known him since I was so young - since I was like 13 - and we've just been good friends over the years. We have just stayed close and there's nothing more to it than that."
Justin voiced a similar sentiment on Instagram when he shared a photo of he and Hailey captioned, "People are crazy. I'm super single and this is my good friend u would know otherwise."
January 2015: Justin and Hailey celebrated New Year's Eve.
Justin and Hailey managed to maintain their friendship in the face of relationship rumors and celebrated the start of 2015 together. Justin even posted a video of a party they attended.
July 2015: Justin and Hailey got matching tattoos.
In the summer of 2015, Justin and Hailey got matching "G" tattoos. According to Cosmopolitan, these tattoos were in honor of pastor Chad Veach's daughter, Georgia, who was born with Lissencephaly, a rare condition characterized by a lack of folds in the brain.
December 2015: Hailey went on vacation with Justin's family.
Throughout the tropical vacation, Justin posted a flurry of photos with Hailey, his father, and his siblings - including one fan-favorite video of Justin teasing Hailey while she poses for the camera.
January 2016: Justin and Hailey spent another New Year's Eve together — but in a more romantic way.
Justin and Hailey spent the start of 2016 together in St. Barts, where, according to People, they exchanged a New Year's kiss at Leonardo DiCaprio's New Year party.
February 2016: Justin and Hailey discussed their relationship.
Justin and Hailey kinda-sorta confirmed their relationship in separate interviews after ringing in 2016 together. In an interview with GQ, Justin said that Hailey is someone who he "really love[s]," but also said that he didn't want to "commit" to anything.
Hailey also confirmed that she and Justin were dating, but not official, around the same time.
"We are not an exclusive couple. He's about to go on tour," she told E! News. "Relationships at this age are already complicated, but I don't really like to talk about it because it's between me and him."
Clearly, both Justin and Hailey tried to avoid saying that they were officially dating. But Justin also hinted that he might like to marry Hailey one day, saying, "I know that in the past I've hurt people and said things that I didn't mean to make them happy in the moment. So now I'm just more so looking at the future, making sure I'm not damaging them. What if Hailey ends up being the girl I'm gonna marry, right?"
Right.
Sometime between February and August 2016, the two fell out.
Hailey later told Vogue that, while she understood their relationship was not serious or exclusive, things ended very badly between them.
"Negative things happened that we still need to talk about and work through," she said in an interview published January 2019.
"'Fizzled' would not be the right word - it was more like a very dramatic excommunication. There was a period where if I walked into a room, he would walk out."
August 2016: Justin started dating Sofia Richie.
http://instagr.am/p/BJE984IgYer
Whatever had been going on between Justin and Hailey in early 2016 was over by August of that year, when Justin unfollowed Hailey on Instagram and started dating Sofia Richie.
Justin and Richie didn't date for very long - in fact, they were broken up by September - but Justin and Hailey's friendship remained in limbo for almost two years.
November 2017 — March 2018: Justin rekindled his relationship with Selena Gomez.
Shortly after Justin was spotted out and about with model slash actress Paola Paulin, he reportedly drove to Gomez's house to hang out with other friends for an evening (while Gomez's boyfriend at the time, Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, was on tour).
After Gomez and The Weeknd split, she was spotted cheering for Justin at a hockey game in Los Angeles while wearing his jersey. Us Weekly quickly confirmed that the on-and-off couple were back together once again.
Read more: Everything you need to know about Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber's on-and-off-again romance
Bieber and Gomez called it quits for the last time in March 2018, four months after their reunion, as reported by E! News.
May 5, 2018: Hailey attended the Met Gala with Shawn Mendes.
Hailey attended the 2018 Met Gala with singer Shawn Mendes, who helped make sure her dress looked great the whole night.
This sparked some dating rumors between the two, which both Hailey and Mendes denied.
Months later, Mendes admitted that the two were "more than friends," but not technically in a relationship: "I don't even wanna put a title on it. I think it was more of a zone of limbo," he told Rolling Stone.
June 2018: Justin and Hailey reconnected.
According to the couple's interview with Vogue, they finally reclaimed their relationship when they both attended a conference in Miami hosted by pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr.
"The common denominator, I promise you, is always church," Hailey told Vogue. "By then we were past the drama. I just gave him a hug. By the end of the conference, he was like, 'We're not going to be friends.' I was like, 'We're not?'"
June 2018: They became the king and queen of PDA.
Throughout the month of June, Justin and Hailey embarked on a public unconfirmed-relationship tour unlike any other.
They cuddled in a club, they kissed in Domino Park, they directed traffic in the Hamptons, and, of course, they went to church together.
July 7, 2018: Justin popped the question.
On July 8, while on vacation in the Bahamas, Hailey was photographed by fans wearing a massive diamond on her left ring finger. One year later, she confirmed via Instagram that Justin proposed on July 7.
At the time, neither Justin nor Hailey immediately confirmed the engagement. But Justin's father, Jeremy Bieber, posted different variations of being proud of his son on both Twitter and Instagram.
Steve Baldwin also appeared to be proud, as he tweeted - and then deleted - a cryptic tweet about husbands and wives.
July 9, 2018: Justin confirmed their engagement.
On Monday, Justin posted two Instagram photos with Hailey and called her the "love of my life," confirming their engagement.
"Was gonna wait a while to say anything but word travels fast, listen plain and simple Hailey I am soooo in love with everything about you!" he wrote. "So committed to spending my life getting to know every single part of you loving you patiently and kindly."
July 17, 2018: Hailey's bridal party was partly announced.
A date for Justin and Hailey's wedding was still up in the air, but plans for the event already appeared to be in the works - at least as far as her bridal party was concerned.
On Tuesday, Kim Basinger told Us! Weekly that Hailey's sister Alaia and cousin (and Basinger's daughter) Ireland were going to be in the wedding.
"Alaia and Ireland, they're in the wedding. So believe me, I just - it's cool!" Basinger told Us! Weekly. "I think it's sweet. It's a very sweet thing."
Basinger married Hailey's uncle, Alec Baldwin, in 1993. The couple divorced in 2002.
July 29, 2018: Justin implied that the wedding would be soon.
Justin and Hailey were out and about in New York City when a TMZ cameraman asked Justin what might be next for him.
The question might have been directed towards his career - Justin had just released a new song with DJ Khaled - but Justin took a personal route and responded, responded, "What's next? Getting married."
As Cosmopolitan reported, Justin and Hailey were spotted meeting with a pastor around the same time.
August 2018: Hailey flaunted her stunning engagement ring on the cover of Vogue Mexico.
The 21-year-old model initially gave her Instagram followers a sneak peek of the ring four days earlier, but it was front and center when the September cover of Vogue Mexico was revealed.
The stunning cover shot, taken by photographer Bjorn Iooss, shows Hailey draping her right hand towards the camera to show off her sparkling ring.
Gemologist and diamond expert Grant Mobley told Insider that the ring has an estimated cost of $600,000 and appears to be about eight carats.
Justin worked with New York-based jeweler Jack Solow of Solow & Co.to design the ring, and the jeweler told People that Justin was very hands-on with the process.
"In the end, Justin wanted something that would gracefully accentuate Hailey's beautifully shaped hands," Solow told People. "We settled on an oval stone that was just exceptional in its length and grace."
Sometime in September 2018, the couple moved in together.
According to an interview with Vogue, published in January 2019, Hailey moved into Justin's home just outside Toronto in September. The magazine also reports that they quickly began "squabbling over decorating decisions."
September 13, 2018: Justin and Hailey quietly tied the knot at a New York City courthouse.
TMZ reported that "several eyewitnesses" spotted the happy couple at the Marriage Bureau in New York City, where marriage licenses are issued.
According to the anonymous eyewitnesses, Justin shed some tears and even told Hailey, "I can't wait to marry you, baby."
https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1040436842598940673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Vogue later confirmed that the two tied the knot at the courthouse.
September 14, 2018: Hailey denied reports that she and Justin had already gotten married.
Citing anonymous inside sources, People reported that the couple was officially married at the courthouse.
"They went ahead and did it without listening to anyone," a source told People.
According to the outlet, a "religious source" also confirmed that Justin and Hailey are now legally married, but are planning to celebrate with friends and families soon.
Hailey, however, took to Twitter shortly after the news broke and denied the reports: "I understand where the speculation is coming from, but I'm not married yet!"
She later deleted the tweet.
September 18, 2018: Justin serenaded Hailey during a loved-up trip to London.
The couple was in town for London Fashion Week, where model Hailey attended the Adidas and JD show after collaborating with the brands as their "style creator."
Justin and Hailey were trailed by the paparazzi throughout the city as they visited some of its tourist hotspots - and the singer was even filmed doing some busking outside Buckingham Palace.
A clip of the singer shows him saying, "That's the love of my life right there," while looking at Hailey and strumming on his guitar.
Back to his roots! Justin Bieber was spotted busking in London today! pic.twitter.com/dfFNH8R1Ce
— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) September 18, 2018
An eyewitness told E! News: "They were very affectionate, stopping on street corners to pull each other in close to kiss. They never let each other get too far and were always touching each other and laughing."
September 30, 2018: Justin introduced Hailey as his wife.
Justin and Hailey paid a visit to the Stratford Perth Museum, which is currently hosting an exhibit about Bieber's rise to fame.
The museum's Instagram account posted an image of a message, apparently written to Justin, that reads: "I ❤️ you forever - Hailey B."
"We were so pleased to have such a warm and special guest visit the museum yesterday (along with her very special husband)," the post's caption reads.
In a comment on the post, the museum further clarified: "Justin very graciously introduced Hailey as his wife. Perhaps just a term of endearment? We loved their visit."
November 15, 2018: Justin officially called Hailey his wife on Instagram.
Justin shared a candid shot with Hailey using a simple caption: "My wife is awesome."
According to Elle, that wasn't originally the caption of his photo. It was apparently caption-less when he posted it on Instagram.
Fans took the post as an official confirmation of the couple's new relationship status.
November 16, 2018: Hailey changed her surname on social media to Bieber.
The model, formerly known as Hailey Baldwin, now apparently goes by Hailey Rhode Bieber, Rhode being her middle name.
February 7, 2019: The Biebers appeared together on the cover of Vogue.
The couple officially confirmed their September courthouse wedding, appeared on the iconic magazine cover together, and openly discussed the tribulations of marriage.
"We're coming from a really genuine place," Hailey said. "But we're two young people who are learning as we go."
"I'm not going to sit here and lie and say it's all a magical fantasy," she continued. "It's always going to be hard. It's a choice. You don't feel it every single day. You don't wake up every day saying, 'I'm absolutely so in love and you are perfect.' That's not what being married is. But there's something beautiful about it anyway - about wanting to fight for something, commit to building with someone."
September 30, 2019: They had an official wedding ceremony in South Carolina.
Justin and Hailey tied the knot for a second time at a traditional wedding ceremony, one year after getting officially married.
Justin shared two photos of him and his wife on Instagram the following morning, alongside the caption: "My bride is [fire emoji]."
The Christian ceremony took place at luxury waterfront resort Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina, Vulture reported, where the couple arrived by speedboat the day before.
