Selena Gomez has a long list of ex-boyfriends, and there have been a handful of times that they have thrown shade at her.

Her exes have shaded her in some of the sleaziest ways ever, which definitely comes with the territory if you are a famous celebrity.

Selena is so heavily beloved by millions of fans though, which is why I always find it a little strange when her exes come out to say something negative about her.

I feel like they should expect the wrath of her diehard fans and stands to come after them, because that’s kind of what we’ve seen happen over the years.

We know Selena is now married to Benny Blanco, but her list of ex-boyfriend‘s who have thrown shaded at her is still interesting to dig into. So I will start with Justin Bieber, of course.

Justin Bieber

When Justin made fun of Selena‘s engagement announcement with that Lord of the Rings meme back in 2025, I was actually so very annoyed for her. I felt like it was super immature of him to compare her to that Lord of the Rings meme, and it shed light on the fact that he’s still bothered by her, what she’s got going on, and the fact that she’s moved on with her life. I know there is probably a lot of tension behind closed doors, knowing that Justin and Benny used to be good friends and musical collaborators before Benny slid in on Selena.

But I still feel like Justin‘s reaction to her engagement announcement was the definition of throwing shade. Right after Selena got engaged to bunny and let the world know, Justin uploaded an Instagram story meme showcased Gollum obsessing over a ring and he added a caption that said, “Girls on social media when they get engaged.” Fans immediately interpreted it as a jab at Selena who was happy in the moment showing off her engagement ring. Selena never responded. She just went on about her life, enjoying her engagement era as a fiancé and now she is officially married.

The Weeknd

And let’s talk about The Weeknd, and his song Call Out My Name, which he put out in 2018. You’ll catch a lot of breakup lyrics that are pretty heartbreaking. And although the song was never confirmed to be about Selena, it has been widely associated with Selena by most fans who know how to put two and two together. One line that sounds like the most is often cited as being super emotional and bitter about sacrificing for someone who dipped out on you after.

In the lyrics, The Weeknd sings, “I said I didn’t feel nothing baby, but I lied / I almost cut a piece of myself for your life / Guess I was just another pit stop / ‘Til you made up your mind /You just wasted my time.” Fans believed he was talking about his willingness to donate an organ to her when he said he almost cut a piece of himself for her life. But then she made him feel like he was just another pitstop who wasted his time. Which easily goes along with the fact that she ended up getting back together with Justin after she and The Weeknd broke up in late October 2017.

Charlie Puth

Let’s talk about those comments Charlie Puth made about Selena back in 2017. Although many people denied Charlie and Selena ever dated, he made claims they were romantically linked in 2015 while she was briefly broken up with Justin. In 2016, Selena and Charlie released a single together called We Don’t Talk Anymore, which now has over 2.55 billion streams on Spotify. It’s definitely a banger, but that doesn’t take away from the drama Selena went through with Charlie.

He vented about her in a resurfaced 2017 interview saying, “We would be talking in a hotel and she’d be like do you wanna sleep over? I’d be like yes, I’m gonna get it in. And then nothing would happen, which is totally fine. But after the fifth time of that happening, I knew what she was doing. I knew that she was trying to make me so embedded to her that I would never leave her. But I would never get what I wanted out of her. So she was doing that repetitively just to get something out of me, which was to be attached to her hips at all times.”

The backlash he got from that interview was insane. People said he had incel energy. Folks said it was super disappointing that he talked about her in that way as if he had baseline expectations that she should have been willing to sleep with him… kust because she was inviting him to hang out and socialize.

Zedd

When Zedd dated Selena in 2015, I was actually pretty excited about their relationship. I felt like they were musically inclined and talented couple who had a future of collaborations in front of them. But Zedd didn’t exactly feel that way in his relationship with her. And someone would say his comments about his failed romance with Selena weren’t that bad, but others would classify what he said as throwing shade. He talked about the bad parts of dating Selena in an interview with Billboard saying, “Reporters were calling my parents. People were hacking my friends’ phones. I was pissed. [Though] I kind of knew what I was getting myself into. She is one of the most talked about people in the world, but I had no idea how much that would change my life.”

In other words, her level of superstardom was too much for him to stomach, and it wasn’t worth it for him to go through the trouble. When I heard that quote from him, it reminded me of what James Harden said about his field relationship with Khloé Kardashian. In an interview with sports illustrated, James complained about the relationship, saying, “I feel like it was for no reason. I wasn’t getting anything out of it, except my name out there in my face out there, and I don’t need that. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it wasn’t me. I don’t need pictures of myself when I’m driving my car. Who cares? The shoes I’m wearing? Who cares? Where I’m eating? Who cares? It was unnecessary stuff that I think trickle down to my teammates. I had to eliminate that.“

Obviously, when a man chooses to date someone as famous as Selena or one of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters, it’s going to come with its own set of lifestyle changes. The level of obsession in the world has with people like Selena is undeniable. So Zedd said what he said, and obviously he meant it. The harassment just wasn’t worth it.

Justin Bieber (again)

And I’ll swing it back around to Justin again regarding the song lyrics he’s released that have seemingly thrown shade at Selena since I only mentioned that shady meme he posted about her before. A song What Do You Mean was confirmed to be about his relationship with Selena. He confirmed that fact in a 2015 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, and that song came out as part of his 2015 album, Purpose. Fans believe the song reflects on the on again off again confusion of his relationship with Selena, which makes a lot of sense when you analyze the lyrics. In this song, he sings, “When you nod your head yes, but you wanna say no, what do you mean?”

In the pre-chorus, he sings, “First, you wanna go to the left, then you wanna turn right / Wanna argue all day, makin’ love all night / First you’re up, then you’re down, and then between / Oh, I really wanna know.”

And anyone who’s been in and off and on relationship can understand the toxicity of it and the craziness you feel going through so many unhealthy highs and lows. Some even say they get addicted to those highs and lows because it tricks your brain into thinking there is so much passion shared between you and the other person. But the reality is that often and on relationships are toxic all around and not worth pursuing. Describing Selena as the person in the relationship to cause all the chaos and confusion is the reason this song is often considered shady. It doesn’t really come across like Justin is taking any of the blame or being self reflective in their relationship regarding what went wrong between them. That song pretty much puts all the blame on Selena’s shoulders.

Other exes + Benny Blanco

Interestingly enough, the rest of the exes in Selena‘s relationship history have largely only said positive things about her. It’s been all love between Selena and her exes who she seems to be on friendly terms with across-the-board. That includes Nick Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Orlando Bloom, Niall Horan, and Zayn Malik. These dudes don’t have bad things to say about Selena, and it doesn’t interest them to throw any shade her way.

But her husband, Benny, has been criticized for some of the comments he’s made about Selena that could classify him as throwing shade. If you need a refresher, here it is. Benny used to be super defensive of Justin and not so defensive of Selena back in the day. During an interview with Zach Sang where he could promote the song he collaborated on with Justin in 2020 called Lonely, Benny low-key threw shade at Selena saying, “Justin is not one of those cookie cutter pop artists. Like you know, they’re like, ‘this is my new single and here’s my makeup line.’ And he’s like, Justin’s like, ‘yo. I have a pimple and I have anxiety today.’ He’s always been upfront about that stuff.”

This felt like a direct attack against Selena, who happens to be a pop music artist who also runs a makeup line called Rare Beauty. And the crazy thing about Rare Beauty is that it’s the reason she hit billionaire status. It is actually way more successful than her career as a popstar. Many people took that statement as a job against Selena, which was totally unnecessary because Benny could have made supportive statements about Justin without also throwing shade at Selena.

And she kind of confirmed she knew Benny was talking about her because of fan commented on one of her posts to say, “You’re just corny OMG that man was shading you years ago.“ Selena wrote back saying, “Lol yeah and he’s still better than anyone I’ve ever been with, facts.“ In other words, she knows he was being shady with that statement, and she still thinks he’s a better guy than anyone else she’s ever dated.

Now that Selena is married to Benny, it’s highly unlikely any of her other exes will randomly pop out with any desire to throw shade at her. It seems that a lot of them are just living their lives, moving on, and doing their own thing at this point. And here’s to hoping Benny will keep it sweet and respectful moving forward and start speaking about Selena in ways that don’t embarrass her.