Life is good for Justin Bieber.
He just released his new single "Honest," he and Hailey Bieber are happily married and he's in the middle of his Justice World Tour. But getting to this place took some time, and the singer opened up about his path during the May 2 episode of The Ebro Show.
"It's a journey," Justin, 28, said. "I mean, I remember when I first got married, I hit a little bit of an emotional breakdown because I thought marriage was going to fix all my problems and it didn't. It just kind of was a reflection of, like, 'You're a bit of a hypocrite man. Like, you want your wife to do something that you're not doing.' And it's like, I mean, it's hard sometimes to look in the mirror and really have to realize, 'Man, maybe you're not the person that you necessarily thought that you were.' And, you know, that's just the result of trauma and life circumstances."
However, he credited his faith with helping him. "Obviously I've been so just very public about my faith journey and how my relationship with Jesus has helped me to just, you know, not be so hard on myself," Justin told host Ebro Darden. "Just the idea that I'm forgiven and that, you know, he's walking me through this journey and day by day, I get to just, you know, get better and better and not be too hard on myself."
Indeed, he says leaning on his faith made a big difference in his life. "I think that that's ultimately what's going to, you know, encourage the people of the world of like, you know, it's discouraging out here sometimes. You know, life smacks you in the face and it can be hard to get back up," Justin continued. "But when you can have a perspective that God is not an angry dude, he is a loving, considerate, compassionate God who knows what we're going through and just wants us to be the best versions of ourselves. And so that for me in that perspective has really changed everything, man."
Justin and Hailey tied the knot in a New York courthouse ceremony in 2018, and then said "I do" again during a 2019 wedding in South Carolina. And like any couple, they've experienced ups and downs.
"The thing is, marriage is very hard," Hailey said in a 2019 interview with Vogue. "That is the sentence you should lead with. It's really effing hard."
Still, through it all, they've remained committed to one another. "I'm fighting to do this the right way, to build a healthy relationship," the model, 25, added. "I want people to know that. We're coming from a really genuine place. But we're two young people who are learning as we go. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say it's all a magical fantasy. It's always going to be hard. It's a choice. You don't feel it every single day. You don't wake up every day saying, 'I'm absolutely so in love and you are perfect.' That's not what being married is. But there's something beautiful about it anyway—about wanting to fight for something, commit to building with someone."