Selena Gomez is looking back on her past relationships! The Who Says singer, who is now happily engaged to music producer Benny Blanco, had a slew of high-profile relationships over the years, including off-and-on romance with Justin Bieber and her brief fling with The Weeknd. During a joint interview with Blanco at the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, Gomez opened up on how her past relationships affected her romance with Blanco.
"I’ve been guilty though to start. I think for me, I necessarily felt like in other situations of mine I was very reactive. I think that’s why I was alone for five years because I really needed to collect myself," Gomez shared. She admitted that it's taken her time to mature, and she's uncertain if she would have been emotionally prepared for a relationship with Blanco earlier in her life. "I think in the past, that’s why I said to him all the time 10 years ago it’s not that I wouldn't have wanted to be with you, I just wouldn’t have been in the right headspace, and I don’t think you deserved what I had gone through before,” she said.
Gomez further added, "I’ve learned a lot of lessons and I’ve made mistakes and I just want this to be right. So for me, that was a lesson that I had to learn.” She concluded by saying that Blanco's patience helped her change her headspace and shift her frame of mind from reacting too quickly. Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco began dating in 2023 and got engaged in December 2024.
Amid the fanfare over their new album, Selena Gomez was spotted out in New York City on March 26, 2025, with her fiancé Benny Blanco. The Golden Globe nominee, 32, put on a leggy display in a sexy all-red outfit as she and the music producer, 37, headed to an event for her makeup line Rare Beauty. Gomez — who recently spoke about online scrutiny she'd faced regarding her weight — modeled a skintight minidress with a chic mock neck and an oversized blazer. She trotted along the NYC sidewalk in tall scarlet heels as her husband-to-be followed in tow.
Blanco, who proposed to the billionaire beauty in December, showed off his eclectic fashion taste while supporting her at the Rare Beauty function. Rare Beauty, which Gomez founded in 2020, is celebrating the release of the brand's new Soft Pinch Matte Bouncy Blush. Retailing for $27 exclusively on Sephora.com, the blush is described as having a 'cushiony, cream-to-powder' formula and it comes in seven shades. Rare Beauty's extraordinary success helped turn Gomez, an already accomplished actress and singer, into a self-made billionaire last year. According to Fortune, Gomez is worth $1.3 billion and over 80% of that wealth comes from 'a stake in her makeup brand.'
Along with celebrating the latest addition to her Rare Beauty line, Gomez recently dropped her first collaborative album, I Said I Love You First, with Blanco. The album, which features 14 new songs, was released on March 21 and gives a raw look at Gomez and Blanco's whirlwind romance, which secretly began in summer 2023. To bring it to fruition, they called on fellow musicians including Gracie Abrams, Charli XCX, and Finneas.
Following the album drop, Gomez wrote in an Instagram post, "Benny, thank you for being my own personal journal throughout this process. These songs represent our past, present and future… something I can't wait to experience with you from now until forever. Thank you for pouring your unconditional love into creating this project with me." She gave a shoutout to the list of co-creators, thanking them 'for helping me communicate my deepest, truest self into art' as she added, 'I am forever grateful for your trust in creating something so special together.' I Said I Love You First has been met with mixed reviews by both fans and critics — though Gomez's BFF Taylor Swift gave the album high praise.
To promote the collaboration, Gomez and Blanco have been giving candid interviews on popular chat shows and podcasts. Most recently, the couple appeared on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast where Gomez reflected on her past relationships. Before Blanco, Gomez famously dated Justin Bieber on/off for eight years as well as other high-profile celebrity men like Taylor Lautner, Nick Jonas, and The Weeknd.
She told Shetty that she has been 'guilty' of sometimes overblowing disagreements or arguments with partners in the past. 'I've been guilty though to start. I think for me, I necessarily felt like in other situations of mine I was very reactive,' Gomez admitted. 'I think that's why I was alone for five years because I really needed to collect myself.' Before becoming a couple in 2023, Gomez and Blanco were close friends and co-workers for over a decade. She revealed that her and the music producer didn't pursue a romantic relationship earlier because she just wasn't 'in the right headspace' to do so. 'I think in the past, that's why I said to [Blanco] all the time 10 years ago it's not that I wouldn't have wanted to be with you, I just wouldn't have been in the right headspace, and I don't think you deserved what I had gone through before,' the Spring Breakers star explained.
'I've learned a lot of lessons and I've made mistakes and I just want this to be right. So for me, that was a lesson that I had to learn.' Gomez said being with Blanco is 'unbelievably easy' compared to her prior romances, which she described as 'difficult.' 'For me, it was really difficult in the past and he's made it unbelievably easy so that if I even get to the point where I’m so frustrated, he's like very quick to understand,' she explained. Blanco's calm demeanor and patience helped Gomez become a less reactive partner and feel the most comfortable she's ever felt in a relationship.
Blanco also got candid about their courtship and made a humiliating confession during the sit-down with Shetty. He revealed that before he and Gomez established a spark, he tried to hook her up with a friend of his. 'I thought she hated me,' Benny confessed. 'Obviously, 99% of it was in my head.' He shared, 'I was talking to her and said, "Oh my God, I have so many good single guy friends… We have dinners at the house all the time. You should come over sometime."' Blanco added about when they were planning their earliest hangout, 'I wasn't even thinking about anything [romantically with Selena] and we're talking about our ideal date and this and that.'
The couple began dating in summer 2023 but Gomez didn't confirm the relationship until six months later in December 2023. Almost exactly a year later, Blanco proposed to Gomez during a romantic nighttime Taco Bell picnic. In the upcoming episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, airing on March 27, 2025, the newly engaged couple shared the behind-the-scenes story of Blanco's viral eyebrow clip on TikTok, in which Gomez can be heard saying, "Do it light, because I love him." Gomez clarified that she did not pluck Blanco's eyebrows; her makeup artist, Hung Vanngo, did it. Blanco asked Vanngo to pluck his eyebrows after Vanngo begged him for a long time.
