Hailey Bieber is a Sobering Super Celeb
Few folks get more attention lavished upon them than Hailey Bieber. Whether that’s by design or intention is besides the point. When you’re married to a global superstar, a member of a royal Hollywood clan and have successful, high-profile career, attention is inevitable, no matter what you might think or want or wish. The impressive aspect of all this is that the super celeb has somehow managed both to keep her head together and remain above the fray. More, she’s done so with no small amount of grace and charm. That’s saying something in any world. In the wild world which she inhabits, that’s saying something extraordinary.
It says Hailey Bieber is a sobering, sensible super celeb. A player, if you will. In the most professional sense of the term. And nobody’s gonna throw her off game.
Hailey B won’t be thrown out of any game either. At least not of one she’s chosen to play. But it’s the Game of Life itself which Bieber continues to ace. And even her inevitable opponents are better for her efforts.
Really.
Hailey Bieber: Sober Support
Hailey of course doesn’t much concern herself with those opponents. Why would she? She never asked to be trolled. She doesn’t deserve to be either. But that’s not even worthy of being another story.
What’s worthy is Beiber’s commitment to her faith and her family, which is as resolute as it is unequivocal. It’s also explicitly evident, especially through the sober support she’s shown to her husband Justin.
It wasn’t always easy though, expressed Bieber. In fact, she told told Amanda de Cadenet that at times it was “extremely difficult.” Especially when Justin’s sobriety journey forced her to revisit some of her own dark history.
Justin and I were “working on a lot of stuff when we first got married,” she said in reference to his early sobriety. “[And] looking back on times of drug use and being in some dark spaces and having to kind of go back there was extremely difficult.”
Those difficulties however never once prevented Hailey from remaining resolute. After all, this was about family. And she had a rock solid family foundation to rely upon too.
“There’s a lot of addiction that runs in my family, not even just my dad [Stephen Baldwin],” she said. “But a lot of other people on that side of my family struggle with a lot of different things. My dad was always really open about [his addiction though] and I always appreciated that… He was always extremely open about why being sober worked for him and why we needed to be sober and what alcoholic behavior looks like and why that comes out.”
Her father certainly set a sound example for Hailey. So sound, in fact, that she was able to successfully pass it along to Justin. Then again, that is one of the distinct benefits in having an “open dialogue.”
“I’ve had times where I would get nervous, [asking Justin], ‘Are you OK to do this? Because you did have a time in your life where it was not OK for you and it was a dark time for you.’” explained Hailey. “But he has very good self awareness when it comes to that and is very open about it and that’s all I can really ask for.”
Like we said, a sobering sensible super celeb.
Bring on the Trolls
There was more to that Amanda de Cadenet interview (which btw was among an impressive array of Victoria’s Secret Voices gets), including the inevitable addressing of those unseemly trolls, whether online or IRL. Here too however, the chat only further proved Hailey Bieber’s capacity to rise above the fray — and to stay there.
Unsurprisingly, Hailey remains bolstered by her long and abiding Christian Faith. What may be a bit surprising though is that Faith has allowed her to feel “empathy” for the unseemly legion who dog her every move. She’s not concerned with the fact that they show tad little empathy for her — and probably never will. Why? Well, quite simply, these people really just don’t know of what they speak.
“Something that tends to happen all the time when you’re in the public eye is that people kind of invent who they think you are,” said Hailey. “I try to be as authentic as possible. But showing people who you are 100% of the time is an impossible task.”
Equally important, empathy allows Hailey to stay above the fray.
“I think we all can have moments that frustrate us,” Hailey said, well, sensibly. “I could sit here and say I hate how mean people can be to me on the internet or I can try and flip it to an empathetic thought.”
“I don’t know what that person is going through,” she continues, “or why they’re lashing out at me specifically. I don’t know who they are. But we all hurt and we all have things we go through and I don’t know what someone might be going through. I don’t know what they’re life is like…”
“I think that’s helped me a lot. It’s helped me to not be so hurt by what people say about me.”
As for those who think she’s asked for all the attention, “that’s actually not true.”
“I didn’t ask for grown men to follow me around with cameras and harass me and invade my space and ask me really invasive questions and make me feel unsafe,” explained Hailey. “I didn’t ask for that. Nobody wants that.”
Clear?
Double Plus Faith
Hailey’s deep Faith has also given her the patience and the strength to overcome the harsh judgment of her Christian colleagues, who, frankly, are the last folks on earth who should be bullying anyone. Yes, it seems some of Hailey’s fellow Christians aren’t very Christ-like after all. In fact, many of them can be downright ugly. They’re also quick to play the “shame” card.
“Because of what I do, because of my job, I do a lot of things [the church might consider] provocative,” she said. And Hailey ends up getting lambasted with shame as a result. For a long while, she took the shaming personally. How could she not?
“I think something that happens when you’re raised in the church and you’re not having enough open dialogue is that everything feels like you’re doing something bad. I think that’s how I felt for many years,” she explained. “I’d go out and get drunk or something and feel a lot of shame.”
But here too, Hailey managed to flip the script.
“I believe a relationship with God is the opposite of feeling shame,” she countered. “I don’t think that God wants you to feel shameful and that everything is a bad thing. Even like having sex before you’re married. That was a big thing for me as a teenager. I was like, ‘oh my God, straight up I’m going to hell.’ That kind of thing was so intense for me and I just had to undo a lot of that.”
Good that she did too, otherwise the world would be without a good deal of good what should be common sense.
Immeasurably Worthy
Hailey’s currently committed to creating a work-life balance and understanding the important things in life.
..
“As I get older I’m a big believer that sometimes our no’s are more powerful than our yeses,” she said. “I always try to make sure that it’s like family first. And when I say family, right now family is me and my husband and the dog. I always try to put that at the top spot before work.”
Again, sensible. Immensely so. And so far away from what most folks would expect the distance can’t even be measured.
Healing Properties wholeheartedly applauds Hailey Bieber, for keeping the faith, as well as remaining above the fray. We’re especially impressed by her capacity to do so in such a seemingly monstrous part of our culture. But even though there may be monsters, Hailey has shown that we need not ourselves be made monstrous. In fact, they’re far easier to be defeated when we’re not. And certainly far easier to overcome.
(Image 1: Wikimedia Commons; Image 2: Shutterstock)
