Hailey Bieber says her marriage to Justin Bieber had a rocky first year and credits their faith with keeping them together.
Formerly Hailey Baldwin, the supermodel looks back on her first year of marriage to singer Justin Bieber.
Speaking with Elle in an interview, Bieber says that while she grew up in a Christian home, it took time for her childhood teachings to take root in her life.
Now 23, Bieber is the daughter of Stephen Baldwin, and says both her parents are Christians. She was raised with these beliefs, but Bieber says following the church was difficult for her.
"As I got older, it got harder to follow church and the Bible because it felt very adult," says Bieber, who shared she felt church was boring as a child.
That's why Bieber took a step back from faith for her teen years.
Then, she found a church community that met her needs and drew her into relationship, both with Christ and other young believers.
"I didn't care about it anymore until I found a church I felt was geared toward young people," says Bieber. "For me, that was the Hillsong Church in New York City."
Bieber was 16 when she began to explore faith on a personal level.
"It started to feel like my own little community of people who were also young and following God," Bieber says. "Then I developed my own relationship to church and my own relationship with God."
Bieber says the journey has been "cool," and has played a significant role in her marriage to husband Justin. But faith is more than just a common interest for the two, and Bieber says they have heavily relied on God during their tough first year of marriage.
"We went straight into figuring out the hard stuff."
The Biebers were married in a courthouse in 2018 but didn't have a formal wedding ceremony until September 30, 2019.
Their first year of marriage experienced significant difficulty stemming from Justin's diagnosis with Lyme disease. The 25-year-old singer only revealed the diagnosis publically recently, and it added another aspect to their relationship.
"When we first got married, we were just figuring out our life together," says Bieber, explaining their late wedding date. "He was really sick ... he was dealing with a bunch of medical stuff. We didn't have a diagnosis and it was hard because everybody from the outside was being super mean and judgmental saying ... how unhealthy he looked."
Bieber says they knew he was not healthy, but didn't know why.
"I felt like putting a wedding in the middle of all of that would be really hectic and stressful."
Navigating her new role as a wife, Bieber says, was made more troubling with Justin's illness.
"It was months of me being a new wife trying to help him figure out what was wrong and what was going on," she says.
"We went straight into figuring out the hard stuff."
Bieber says the time they were unsure of why Justin was sick was "scary," without the added stress of public opinion. "It just sucks," she shared.
"He's an incredible, amazing man and such a good partner to go through life with ... There is no one else I would have ever wanted to spend my life with except him."
Sat, May 18, 9:00 AM
Full-time, Agriculture, Labour