Hailey Bieber addressed a culture in the church, wherein members tend to isolate people.
The model revealed that her former church made her feel like an outcast after she broke up at the time with, Justin Bieber, in 2016, The Christian Post reported. Justin is now her husband.
"There were a lot of people in the church world that made me feel very outcast. When did church become a social club? That was such a bad feeling," she reportedly told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
In 2009, Hailey and Justin first met during the latter's fan event. In November 2014, the pair was rumored to be dating after they were seen attending a service together at Hillsong Church, alongside Kendall Jenner. But both denied the rumor, claiming that they are just good friends.
In February 2016, they discussed their relationship with various news outlets. Justin confessed at the time that he loves Hailey but does not want to "commit" to anything. Hailey, on the other hand, confirmed that they were dating.
That same year however, the couple broke up and went on to have other relationships.
But in June 2018, the pair reconnected. The following September, they got married through a civil wedding in New York City and another Christian ceremony in South Carolina.
Further to her interview with WSJ, Hailey shared that throughout the couple's fall-out, Churchome pastor Judah Smith and his wife, Chelsea, stood by her.
The Biebers now attend Churchome after they decided to cut ties with Carl Lentz, following the latter's firing from Hillsong Church due to a cheating controversy.
Hailey said that the Smiths' support made her comfortable to talk about her personal life on their "In Good Faith" podcast in November 2021.
In the podcast, the model unveiled that she encountered challenges during the early part of her marriage and almost gave up on it but her parents supported and encouraged her.
However, Hailey told the WSJ that she does not feel like speaking about such matter to the media outlets and even instructed her team to avoid future interviews focusing on the subject.
"It doesn't feel worth it to me anymore when I try to have an open conversation with someone like you and then it gets taken out of context," she said.
"The media loves to take a tiny little blurb of something for clickbait. The media has always been a disgusting thing," she added.
In spite of this, the model still shared some details of her relationship with Justin.
"Behind closed doors, we're two really normal people that just have not-normal lifestyles and careers. I think given the magnitude of Justin's career, he's a very normal person, and I don't think that always happens."
She stressed that though they have some similarities, they also have a lot of differences, which she believes is "cool" because this allows them to introduce new things to each other.
On the issue of having children, the model criticized the society for putting pressure on women.
"There's this thing that happens for women when you get married. Everybody always assumes it's: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby. Well, what about all the things I want to accomplish in my business?" Hailey declared.
