It's the breakup we have simultaneously had been expecting but also never thought would actually happen: J. Biebs and Selena are no longer an item. After nearly two years of gracing probably every cover of Tiger Beat, the duo has officially called it quits.
Ultimately, sources say that distance finally got the best of the two uber-famous, ultra-rich teen stars. "Because of their crazy schedules, it was getting harder and harder to maintain a relationship," a source told E! News. Sure, for a regular 20- and 18-year-old that excuse may be a cop-out, but in the case of Gomez and Bieber, a busy schedule isn't just the varsity soccer team or being president of the high school National Honor Society. After quickly becoming a beloved Disney darling as star of Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place in 2007, Gomez has since appeared in feature films, released hit singles with her band Selena Gomez & The Scene and owns her own fashion line. And Bieber isn't one to twiddle his thumbs either-the Canadian-born pop singer burst onto the music scene in 2009 and has been a baby-faced, Usher-mentored staple in pop culture ever since.
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To be honest, it's hard to remember a time when these two weren't together. They officially stepped out as a couple in February 2011, but the pair has long been showering each other with PDA and innocently sweet surprises. Case in point: on New Year's Eve in 2009, when the Biebs serenaded his soon-to-be girlfriend with "One Less Lonely Girl" onstage at a concert. And that was only the beginning. Think back to May 2011 when the pair took a mature-beyond-their-years romantic trip to Hawaii and were snapped smooching all over the Pacific. Or in September of the same year when Bieber rented out literally the entire Staples Center in Los Angeles to screen Titanic... for a regular date night. And, of course, there's the video proof of the pair's friendly chemistry in the form of their "Call Me Maybe" parody on Youtube.
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And yet, their relationship wasn't always perfect. Bieber's fans-notorious for their young age, high-pitched shrieks and severely intense crushes on the singer-made for a strained relationship between him and Gomez, and often took to the Internet to jealously criticize the Disney mogul. And then there's the ever-present paparazzi who, in May, irked Bieber to such an extreme that he was accused of battery by a photog who claimed the "Boyfriend" singer roughed him up so badly that he was left in need of medical attention ( ... are we talking about the same Bieber here, dude?).
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Seeing the next US Weekly with the infamous jagged slash through a picture of the once adorably-attached couple is going to be a shocker, but it makes sense: Bieber and Gomez are a young couple who, like most young couples, split. Let's be honest, if they're actually anything like the rest of us, they'll be gracing magazine covers with a new special someone in no time.
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