Justin Bieber opens up about marriage in Vogue: 'I believe that God blessed me with Hailey as a result' of celibacy

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the inevitable his-and-hers Vogue cover.

Justin and Hailey Bieber have coupled up for the March issue of <i>Vogue</i>. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/<i>Vogue</i>)
Justin and Hailey Bieber have coupled up for the March issue of Vogue. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

The baby carriage won’t come for at least a couple of years, the newly minted Hailey Bieber says of her marriage to pop star Justin Bieber. The couple, who tied the knot in a Manhattan courthouse last September, are coming clean about their relationship — warts and all — for the March issue of Vogue.

“The thing is, marriage is very hard,” the 22-year-old model, who wears a very bridal ivory Prada dress on the cover alongside her new husband, tells writer Rob Haskell. “That is the sentence you should lead with. It’s really effing hard.”

The former Hailey Baldwin can thank her famous uncle Alec for connecting her to Bieber; he gave her tickets to the 2009 Today appearance where they first crossed paths. While Hailey denies being a “superfan” of the singer, he eventually became her “best guy friend” when they reconnected through the Hillsong church a few years later. Things briefly turned romantic about three years ago — “negative things happened that we still need to talk about and work through,” she says of the short-lived fling — but it wasn’t until running into each other at a church conference last June that things got serious.

While the couple are in the midst of planning a larger wedding celebration, they tell the magazine that they’re also working through the kinks in their relationship.

The couple were married in September. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/<i>Vogue</i>)
The couple were married in September. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

We’re two young people who are learning as we go,” she says. “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.”

While Bieber admits to being “emotionally unstable” and having trust issues, he credits her with bringing “security” to his life. He also sees their rekindled romance as a reward for the yearlong pledge of celibacy he undertook as a way to avoid what he saw as the toxic trappings of sex.

“I wanted to rededicate myself to God in that way because I really felt it was better for the condition of my soul,” Bieber says, noting that he had a “legitimate problem” with sex prior to his relationship. “And I believe that God blessed me with Hailey as a result. There are perks. You get rewarded for good behavior.”

And they say romance is dead.

Read the full interview in the March issue of Vogue.

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