Selena Gomez Says Her Breakup with Justin Bieber Was the “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”

Selena Gomez is opening up about her heartbreak over Justin Bieber like never before.

In her Apple TV+ documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, available to stream today, the “Same Old Love” singer gets real about the aftermath of her split from Bieber, with whom she had an on-again-off-again relationship for six years. The two permanently broke up in 2018, and months later, Bieber married model Hailey Baldwin.

“Everything was so public,” Gomez says in the documentary, per Entertainment Tonight. “I felt haunted by a past relationship that no one wanted to let go of. Then I just moved past it, and I wasn’t afraid anymore.”

Though difficult to deal with at the time, she now thinks of their split in a positive light.

“I feel like I had to go through the worst possible heartbreak ever and then just forgetting everything at the drop of the [hat], it was really confusing,” she says. “But I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

To sort through her feelings about their breakup and Bieber’s subsequent marriage, Gomez shares that she called up songwriters Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter; together, the trio created “Lose You to Love Me.”

“I text Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter and said, ‘I think I’m ready to just say I’m sad,’” Gomez recalls. “We wrote the song in 45 minutes. The fastest song I’ve ever written.”

Of the song’s meaning, she explains, “It’s about more than a lost love. It’s me learning to choose myself, to choose life, but also hoping that people can find grace and peace in that too. The song is about knowing that you completely lost every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again.”

Though the documentary doesn’t delve into the minute details of her and Bieber’s former romance, it does offer a look at Gomez’s insecurities when it comes to constantly being associated with her ex-boyfriend.

In one emotionally poignant scene, the singer breaks down while rehearsing for her 2016 Revival Tour after the head of her record label, John Janick, asked her to collaborate with Bieber for a song.

“I don’t know what John thinks, I want to talk to John. I don’t want to disappoint John. I don’t want him to think that he signed some f**king Disney kid,” she says, per ET. “It just sucks too, because the whole song thing. He called me this morning about the song with Justin, like, when am I just going to be good enough by myself? When am I gonna be good just by myself, not needed anybody to be associated with?”

Today, there seems to be no bad blood between Gomez and the Biebers, as last month, Gomez was photographed looking cozy with Hailey at the Academy Museum Gala, squashing any rumors of a feud.

Gomez later reflected on the now-viral photo in an interview with Vulture, saying, “Yeah, it’s not a big deal. It’s not even a thing.”