HOW HAILEY BIEBER FINALLY 'WON THE INTERNET WAR'
Updated: May 18
Newsweek for Apple News Exclusive Feature
She stayed silent, built a billion-dollar brand, and let one Coachella moment do the talking. Has Hailey Bieber finally won the internet's respect?
For years, Hailey Bieber was cast as a villain in Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez's teenage love story. Then she built a billion-dollar brand, showed up to Coachella in a hoodie, and the internet quietly changed its mind.
Predictably, Coachella 2026 has delivered a flurry of viral moments, one being an image of Bieber standing in a crowd sporting her signature barely-there makeup look, eyes fixed on the stage where her husband Justin Bieber performs. Around her, a constellation of celebrity friends—including the Kardashian-Jenner clan—turn excitedly to one another. In that moment, the socialite turned beauty mogul is the only one watching Bieber, and the internet apparently took note.
It was, as one Instagram video framed it, the moment she "won."
Within days, reels, reaction videos and opinion threads have flooded social-media platforms declaring the end of a yearslong internet duel—the unfortunate, age-old kind that pits two successful, attractive women against each other and asks the world to pick a side.
Why the Internet Hated Hailey
In this case, the sides had long been either Bieber, the niece of actor Alec Baldwin, or pop titan Gomez, bound together by a shared romantic history with the same man, and by an online fandom that had turned the resulting love triangle into a decade-long blood sport.
But the intimate moment snapped at Coachella, paired with Bieber's efforts through her skincare brand Rhode over the past few years, led to a shift.
Newsweek spoke with experts who have watched Bieber's influence grow to learn how she rose above the internet vitriol, ultimately winning new status and fans.
"She was pulled into a story that wasn't really hers, and instead of feeding the drama, she kept building her own lane," Amanda Rumore, founder and CEO of The Publicity Collective, told Newsweek.
For the public relations strategist, the cultural reversal makes perfect sense.
"Bieber didn't win the internet by fighting back; she won by staying consistent," Rumore said. "She focused on growing Rhode, creating a clear personal style, and giving people something current to connect with beyond old headlines."
The online harassment Bieber faced, which she referenced in a recent Vogue feature, had been relentless.
From the moment Bieber married Justin in 2018, a segment of the internet—largely drawn from Gomez's devoted fan base—directed an
organized campaign of bullying at her, relitigating the timeline of the Bieber-Gomez romance and positioning Hailey as the interloper.
The Changing Narrative
Matias Rodsevich, CEO and founder of PRLab, told Newsweek he believes Bieber's relative silence on the matter sparked the recent narrative shift.
"She won [the internet war] by making the fight irrelevant," Rodsevich said. "The cyberbullying was relentless; most of it had very little to do with who she actually is."
What ultimately moved the needle, he added, was three quiet shifts at once: her billion-dollar brand, unbroken composure, and the viral Coachella moment.
"Also, that Coachella moment of her nudging Billie Eilish toward the stage, visibly thrilled for someone else, said more than any PR strategy could," Rodsevich added. "People eventually stop rooting against someone who just keeps showing up."
The brand in question is Rhode, the pared-back skincare line Bieber launched in 2022 and built—through precise aesthetic curation and an instinct for what the younger generation actually wants—into a genuine lifestyle phenomenon.
Last year, Rhode was acquired by e.l.f. Beauty for $1 billion, and the deal reframed Bieber entirely. The 29-year-old was now neither just nepo baby nor celebrity wife, but a culture-driving founder.
Cheryl Overton, founder of Cheryl Overton Communications, told Newsweek that Bieber's celebrity family initially triggered predictable skepticism.
"Her born privilege and upbringing screamed 'nepo baby' at first, but, with Rhode, she showed real business chops," Overton said. "Her natural instinct for product formulation, packaging and storytelling is clear.
"Rhode worked because she was a believable creator and customer."
The generational dimension of Bieber's rehabilitation matters, too. Hana Ben-Shabat, founder of Gen Z Planet and author of Gen Z 360, pointed out that Bieber's core audience has changed the terms of the conversation altogether.
"Bieber won the internet war by not taking part in it," Ben-Shabat told Newsweek, concurring with Rumore and Rodsevich. "She did not respond to haters.
"She was simply focused on her own life: her brand, her son, and, of course, her glazed doughnut nails."
For Gen Z, Ben-Shabat said, this reads not as avoidance but as authority.
"A generation that grew up watching internet wars is perhaps telling us that the most-powerful weapon is silence and quiet confidence," she added.
Rumore agreed that a generational realignment has been quietly under way.
"Younger audiences care less about picking sides in celebrity drama and more about style, wellness, business success, and confidence," she said. "Bieber fits that conversation."
The recycled feuds of the tabloid era, she added, no longer hold the same power.
"From a PR standpoint, she didn't 'win' through controversy," Rumore said. "She won by letting the brand become bigger than the noise."
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