A 2020 clip of Justin Bieber making a joke about his wife Hailey’s pre-pregnancy body has resurfaced and gone viral – and fans aren’t happy.

It shows the couple driving in a car, when Justin turns to Hailey and says, smiling into the camera: ‘If you weren’t so hot, I would’ve got rid of you a long time ago’. 

What could’ve been interpreted as a joke has been taken quite badly by some fans.One called his words ‘abuse’ and another posted: ‘No words. That man would never see me again or he would never see the light of day again.’

‘Justin that is RUDE and DISGUSTING thing to say to your wife. You aren’t hot btw. Disrespect a woman like that? Red flag,’ one fumed, and other wrote ‘this is a crazy thing to say to your gf/fiance/wife (idk what they where at the time).’

‘He doesn’t love her and she doesn’t love herself either,’ another posted.

This comes after Justin had already infuriated fans with his post following the drop of Hailey’s Vogue interview. His Instagram post read: ‘Yo this reminds me when Hailey and I got into a huge fight. I told Hails that she would never be on the cover of Vogue. 

‘Yikes, I know, so mean. For some reason because I felt so disrespected I thought I gotta get even… Think as we mature we realise that we’re not helping anything by getting even… we’re honestly just prolonging what we really want which is intimacy and connection.

His post ended with a direct message to Hailey: ‘So baby u already know but forgive me for saying u wouldn’t get a Vogue cover cuz clearly I was sadly mistaken.’

Backlash has followed, with critics suggesting that Justin isn’t showing the appropriate amount of support for his wife, who has just sold her cosmetics brand Rhode for $800 million in cash and stock upfront, with another $200 million contingent on future growth, per The New York Times.

Hailey herself wrote on Instagram of the sale: ‘When I launched @rhode in 2022, I always had big dreams for the company, and the most important thing to me is to keep bringing rhode to more spaces, places, and faces globally. So today I am so incredibly excited and proud to announce that we are partnering with e.l.f. Beauty as we step into this next chapter in the world of rhode.

‘I feel invigorated, excited and more ready than ever to step into an even bigger role as Chief Creative Officer, and Head of Innovation of rhode as well as strategic advisor to e.l.f. Beauty,’ she added.

A-list names and friends of the Biebers such as Paris Hilton, Emily Ratakowski, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner and Kim Kardashian immediately posted their support and congratulations at the sale. 

Justin’s repost of Hailey’s Rhode success didn’t have a caption, leading to suggestions that he was in ‘caption jail’. ‘Daddy’s not allowed to do captions anymore’ a fan wrote.
Fans have called Justin’s previous jokes ‘unnecessary’, with one posting ‘Why would you write something like that… put that phone down please’. Others have questioned why he might be ‘sadly mistaken’ when he said that Hailey wouldn’t manage to get a Vogue cover – suggesting he wouldn’t be happy for her.
Hailey has opened up in detail during said Vogue interview about her birthing experience as well as her pregnancy, and her brushes with depression, low mood and the pressures she’s put on herself as a new mum.
‘Every day I have to talk to myself, like, Hailey, you had a baby,’ she said. ‘You grew a human. You birthed a human. It’s okay. Give yourself grace. Give yourself time.’

She described motherhood itself as ‘my biggest teacher so far,’ and ‘the biggest teacher in my relationship. ‘You see your partner so differently,’ she said, describing Justin as an amazing and natural dad.

Hailey also described the ways in which Justin revered her when she was going through pregnancy and childbirth, recounting him feeling like ‘My woman is a god. A superhero. I could never.’At least that was the case for me,’ she said.

And above all, Justin did put on the record that his marriage to Hailey was his smartest move. “I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life,” he wrote to Vogue by email, “but the smartest thing I’ve ever done was marry Hailey,” describing the expansion of his family as ‘walking in the days I always dreamed of.’

So we’re led to believe that there’s a slight difference between the jokes Justin posts online about his wife and his IRL behaviour, especially as Hailey has made it clear how painful speculation about her relationship is, referring to ‘people being like, They’re getting divorced and They’re this and They’re not happy.’

‘It is such a mindfuck. I cannot even begin to explain it. It’s a crazy life to live,’ she said.