ICYMI, Justin Bieber proposed to Hailey Baldwin over the weekend, gifting her an engagement ring so enormous it would blind you if you stared at it for too long. Many on social media couldn’t believe the speed at which the two moved, likening them to Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson’s breakneck progression into fiancee-hood.
But a 2016 interview with GQ suggests that the Biebs had known he would eventually end up with Hailey all along — he just wasn’t ready to go all in the first time around. Observe:
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? If I rush into anything, if I damage her, then it’s always gonna be damaged. It’s really hard to fix wounds like that. It’s so hard.… I just don’t want to hurt her.
According to E! News, the pair has been talking marriage ever since they got back together a month ago. A source close to the couple revealed that “Justin and Hailey had talked about marriage before but Hailey didn’t think it would happen so quickly.” A separate source confirmed to People that Justin and Hailey’s whirlwind engagement is not as spur-of-the-moment as it appears.
“It might seem spontaneous, but it wasn’t,” said the source. “He felt in his heart that this was right. He doesn’t want Hailey to ever be the one that got away.”
“He knew a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to propose,” the source continued. “He sees marriage as something very special. He would never propose if he wasn’t crazy about Hailey.”
If only he wasn’t as crazy about Hailey as he is about wearing hotel slippers out in public. It appears that much of his attraction to the Baldwin model has to do with the fact that it is nothing like his dramatic, on-and-off again romance with pop superstar Selena Gomez.
“Hailey was always there for Justin and liked him the way he was,” the anonymous source told People. “She never tried to change him. His relationship with Hailey is easy and fun. He loves that she is always happy.”
