Selena Gomez isn’t hiding her feelings these days, especially after seeing a video on TikTok that said she “never would’ve dated” her boyfriend, Benny Blanco, back in “her IT GIRL era.” The TikTok included footage of Gomez arriving at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in November 2015. The user wrote, “I know and so do you that at the time she would never have gotten engaged to Benny, she was in her IT GIRL era.”
The video was set to the song “Company” by Justin Bieber, Gomez’s ex with whom she was in a volatile on-off relationship during the 2010s. They ended things for good in spring 2018. Gomez remained publicly single, keeping her love life largely to herself, up until December. At that point, she shared she had been dating Blanco for six months.
Gomez responded to the TikTok by debunking the claim and revealing her “IT GIRL era” was not as aspirational as it looked: “Kinda makes me laugh because I was so depressed back then lol.”
Gomez in November 2015
Blanco and Gomez have now been dating for over a year. They are not engaged, although a source told Us Weekly last week that the couple is “very serious and have talked about marriage.” The report came shortly after Gomez called Blanco the “love of my life” on her Instagram Story.
This isn’t Gomez’s first time defending someone she loves on social media; she’s made headline before for standing up for her friends, like Taylor Swift.
Gomez spoke during the TIME100 Summit in April about her relationship with social media and why she’ll respond to negative comments from time to time.
“I find it frustrating and then I get a little mouthy, and I wanna defend people I love,” she said. She then stressed “it’s important to take breaks [from social media]. So I try to—I don’t really pay much attention. I’ll just do things here and there.”
She also addressed how her life changed when she stopped posting to Instagram herself. “I took four years off of Instagram, and I let my team post for me for those years,” she said. “I felt like it was the most rewarding gift I gave myself. I think people, especially young kids, it’s—you’re sitting there so focused on what looks wonderful when everything that’s meant to be wonderful to you is not from here. [During my break], I was more present. I was happier. I would actually get real phone calls [from] people telling me about their story, and I could actually hear it instead of going, ‘Oh, I already know what you did today.’ It’s more human.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
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