Selena Gomez is in a relationship again. After months of sharing multiple TikToks poking fun at her singleness, Gomez announced in December that she was dating music producer Benny Blanco. While some fans reacted negatively to the news, Gomez defended her new love, referring to him as "the best thing that’s ever happened to me," and vowed to never "be with a f***boy ever again."
But all this attention she’s receiving thanks to her new romance with Blanco is nothing new. Gomez’s love life has been on public display and has been popular tabloid fodder since she was a teenager. Her on-and-off relationship with Justin Bieber inspired headline after headline and made them one of the biggest couples in pop culture history. Some people are still #TeamJelena, even if Bieber has been married to wife Hailey for some time.
Aside from a highly public relationship with The Weeknd, Gomez hasn’t been in another committed relationship since. She has had a string of rumored relationships with celebrities like Niall Horan, Orlando Bloom, and Charlie Puth, but those never amounted to anything. She was recently reportedly dating Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction, but their connection was short-lived.
The actress has been open about the difficulties she has dealt with in her love life. She spoke to Vogue Australia in 2021 about her romantic hardships, saying: "I think most of my experiences in relationships have been cursed. I've been way too young to be exposed to certain things when I was in relationships.” Now that she’s in her 30s, Gomez seems to be more certain of what she wants when it comes to love.
Her recent openness about Blanco is rare and might indicate just how strongly she feels about the producer. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to relive all of Selena Gomez's relationships that led her to her new love. Check out a list of her dating history (and some rumored flings) below.
Nick Jonas
When: 2008–2010
Anyone who grew up marginally obsessed with Disney Channel would know how trailblazing this relationship was. Gomez and Jonas first sparked dating rumors in 2008, when the then-Wizards of Waverly Place star was spotted skateboarding while wearing Jonas’ T-shirt. Fast-forward to Gomez appearing in the Jonas Brothers’ music video for “Burnin’ Up” (as Nick’s love interest no less), and all lives everywhere were changed. While it’s unclear why or when exactly the couple split in 2009, they did try to rekindle their romance a year later before calling it quits permanently. Although their romance was brief, it was nothing short of mighty, crowning them both as the father and mother of Disney Channel (second only to Jonas’ first Disney ex, Miley Cyrus).
In an interview with CapitalFM in 2015, Gomez reminisced over her Disney days with a Jo-bro and said, “We were babies! We actually caught up the other day, and it’s really fun to be able to do that. That, to me, was like puppy love. It was very sweet. He’s lovely. I do have a love for him for sure.”
Taylor Lautner
When: 2009
Gomez was briefly linked to Taylor Lautner in 2009 in between her on-again, off-again relationship with Jonas. The pair first met in Canada while working on different projects (yes, Lautner was working on a Twilight film at the time), and were later spotted going on a few dates together. In an interview with Seventeen magazine later that year, Gomez spilled some lukewarm tea about their relationship, sharing, “[Taylor’s] a great guy. But I’m 100 percent single, and I’m going to keep it that way for a while.”
She continued, “We would go out to lunch and dinner, but I knew he had paparazzi following him and I had paparazzi following me. So we literally just wanted to hang out, go bowling and stuff, and it went a little too far, I think. People were getting a little crazy about us.” Although Lautner and Gomez’s relationship was short-lived—and is now practically buried in the ethers of pop culture history—it was still iconic for its time and was 2009 core at its absolute best.
Justin Bieber
When: 2010–18
First loves can be rough. Gomez’s relationship with Bieber may have started off as puppy love, but it soon became an unstable on-and-off romance that spanned eight years. The pair first met in 2009 through Scooter Braun but weren’t spotted together in public until 2010. They denied being romantically involved at the time and didn’t confirm they were a couple until 2011. Like other popular celebrity couples before them, Gomez and Bieber’s relationship was talked about so often that the media and fans nicknamed them “Jelena.” Their first split took place in November 2012, and that initiated a long list of breakups and reconciliations to come. Their breakup to makeups went on for years, inspiring hit songs like Gomez’s “The Heart Wants What It Wants” and Bieber’s “Sorry,” and they ultimately called it quits in 2015—or so it seemed.
That year, Bieber opened up to Complex about what he learned from dating Selena. The singer revealed that the relationship felt more like a marriage because they moved in together when he was 18, leading to them building their identities around each other. “It was a marriage kind of thing. Living with a girl, it was just too much at that age. But we were so in love. Nothing else mattered. We were all about each other,” he shared. “But when it’s like that and you get your value from that, people will always disappoint you. Your girl or your dude, they’re always going to disappoint you. Your full identity can’t be in that person. My identity was in her. Her identity was in me. When stuff would happen, I would lose my freakin’ mind, and she would lose her mind, and we would fight so hard because we were so invested in each other.” Then Bieber posted a photo of himself kissing his now-wife, Hailey Baldwin, on New Year's 2016, and it seemed like Jelena was done for good.
Samuel Krost
When: 2015
Samuel Krost and Gomez were first spotted having dinner together in November 2015. They were later photographed holding hands outside of 1 Oak in Los Angeles in January 2016. The singer has yet to address the relationship, but that August, Krost, who has a fashion line under his name, shared—and deleted—a heartfelt message about the actress on Instagram. “Selena is a real girl with a real heart and real feelings. All you superficial who are just unhappy with your love lives, understand that love is real,” he reportedly wrote. “Although we have ventured on separate paths, at least I know that love exists. I love you, Sel.” They are on good terms and Gomez attended Krost's wedding in December 2023.
Zedd
When: 2015
While working on music together in early 2015, Gomez and music producer Zedd’s creative partnership quickly turned into a romantic one. The pair first sent the rumor mill into overdrive after leaving a Golden Globes party together hand-in-hand. By the end of January, the duo were more or less unofficially official with Gomez soft-launching her new beau on Instagram. The actress posted a group photo where the producer could be seen wrapping his arms around her, and later posted a video of them together on a bowling date.
During an interview with Radio Disney in March 2015, Gomez spoke fondly of Zedd (although dodging any confirmation of their relationship) and disclosed how they met. “He’s this cute little German, and he’s got really beautiful eyes, and he’s very sweet and funny.” She continued, “He and I met when we were recording using the same building and he needed to use my bathroom. We ended up talking, sharing music and it happened organically.”
Although Selena looked like she was smitten, the actress never confirmed her relationship with Zedd until months after the two broke up. “I adore Anton [Zedd] a lot and I definitely had a thing with him, which was nice,” she shared during an interview with The Edge Afternoons in July 2015. As for Zedd, the DJ reflected on his relationship with Gomez in a 2017 interview with Billboard, where he described the media attention it drew as being incredibly difficult.
“Reporters were calling my parents. People were hacking my friends’ phones. I was pissed. I kind of knew what I was getting myself into,” he shared. “She is one of the most talked about people in the world, but I had no idea how much that would change my life.”
Charlie Puth
When: 2016
When promoting his 2016 duet with Gomez titled “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” Puth opened up about his experience with the singer and how it was working with her on the song. “It’s about a particular moment in my life when someone very close to me wanted the attention of somebody else,” he said to Billboard about this song. “When I found that out and we ended it, I might have done some shady things too, and she might have asked me, ‘How long has this been going on?'”
“I don’t kiss and tell, but the only way a song like that can come across as real is if there’s something else going on behind the scenes,” he added. “And that’s what was happening [with Gomez]. Very short-lived, very small, but very impactful. And it really messed me up. I’m trying to put this the best way possible: It wasn’t like I was the only person on her mind. And I think I knew that going in—what I was getting myself into.” Gomez, on the other hand, denied the rumor, saying that they were anything more than friends.
The Weeknd
When: 2017
The Weeknd and Gomez appeared to be perfect for each other, or at least a reprieve from their on-and-off relationships with their former lovers. They met in 2015 at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but the singers didn’t start dating until a couple of years later. After they were spotted getting cozy with each other after dinner in California in January 2017, they jetted off to Italy together and made their relationship Instagram official. They dated for 10 months, traveling the world together while he was on tour, attending the Met Gala and Coachella together, and he was reportedly by her side when she underwent a kidney transplant that summer.
The pair announced their break up in October, but she said they ended things on good terms. “Something that I’m really proud of is that there’s such a true friendship [between us],” Gomez told Billboard after the split. “I truly have never experienced anything like that in my life. We ended it as best friends, and it was genuinely about encouraging and caring [for each other], and that was pretty remarkable for me.” It wasn't long before they both started seeing their exes again.
Justin Bieber, again
When: October 2017–March 2018
Fans were surprised when Gomez rekindled her romance with Bieber in October 2017, shortly after her split from The Weeknd. Jelena 2.0 had a brief resurgence after they were spotted attending church and going on bike rides together. They showed signs of getting serious again, posting photos on Instagram and attending his father's wedding in Jamaica in February 2018. Things between them didn’t progress past that point, though, and they called it quits by March 2018. By July of that year, Bieber was engaged to Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin), and the pair confirmed they were married that November.
The following year, Gomez released “Lose You to Love Me,” and the hit song’s lyrics appeared to address how quickly Bieber moved on from their relationship after their final breakup. “In two months you replaced us/Like it was easy,” she sings. “Made me think I deserved it, in the thick of healing.” While the Biebers are still married, Hailey and Gomez have continued to be involved in social media drama with each other in recent years, even after posing for photos together in 2022.
Drew Taggart
When: January–February 2023
At the start of the year, news broke that Gomez was dating The Chainsmokers’ frontman Andrew “Drew” Taggart. The couple were spotted out and about together in NYC, with insiders revealing to Us Weekly that “They aren’t trying to hide their romance by sneaking around at members-only clubs.” They added: “They are so affectionate and having a lot of fun together. Selena can hardly keep her hands off him.”
But Gomez’s cuffing season was brief, with the star posting a TikTok in March of her lip-synching to an audio that said, “I hate it when girls are like, ‘Oh my gosh, my crush doesn’t even know that I exist.’ Girl, my crush doesn’t even exist!” Captioning the post with, “Still out here lookin for him lol.” It’s unclear when or why Taggart and Gomez broke up, but their fling was short and cute.
Zayn Malik
When: March 2023
Ah, the relationship that could have been. Rumors that Gomez was seeing Zayn Malik, a former One Direction member, began rumbling in March 2023. Just two days after Gomez met up with Malik’s assistant Taryn Zimmerman at Nobu in New York City, the singers were spotted out to dinner. Their date went viral after a hostess at the restaurant gave her friend the scoop to share on TikTok. The hostess reportedly said they were holding hands when they walked in and that they were kissing. The story was then reported by Entertainment Tonight after an eyewitness confirmed the outing. "Selena and Zayn went out in SoHo in New York City last night at around 10:30 p.m.," the insider told the outlet. "They walked in holding hands and were kissing. Most restaurant staff and restaurantgoers didn't notice them."
"It seemed like they were comfortable together, and it was clear that it was a date," the eyewitness added.
Us Weekly then reported that things weren’t “serious” between the pair, and that she was dating other people, but that he was interested to see where things go. "Zayn has known Selena for years, and he's definitely into her," the source said. "He's always admired her and thinks she's an incredible person, inside and out."
They are both pop royalty, have been famous since they were kids, and have had their relationships play out publicly. They would have been a perfect match, but things seemed to fizzle out after fans noticed that the pair unfollowed one another on Instagram months later.
Benny Blanco
When: December 2023–present
It came as a surprise to all, especially to Selenators, when Gomez quickly confirmed swirling rumors that she was dating Benny Blanco. Selena soft-launched the relationship by sharing a cuddly photo of her with Blanco without showing his face on her Instagram story. When a pop news page shared the pic, she verified that they were an item. When commenters expressed their thoughts about their union, Gomez defended her new man, writing. "He is my absolute everything in my heart.”
She commented that he is "The best thing that's ever happened to [her]" and that he's "better” than her past boyfriends. She vowed to not repeat past mistakes: “I know what’s best for me and I will fight till I get what I deserve. I appreciate your misguided input but I’m growing,” the singer wrote. “Don’t feel free to grow with me just know I'm not going to be with a f***boy ever again.” In another comment she revealed that they have been seeing each other for six months.
