Benny Blanco has allegedly broken his silence after Justin Bieber appeared to fire at a dig at his fiancée Selena Gomez.
Canadian musician Bieber found himself in hot water with online critics yesterday (2 Apr), for seemingly poking fun at this ex's engagement to Blanco and comparing the actress to Lord of the Rings' Gollum.
If you're struggling to make heads or tails of what we're telling you, let us start at the very beginning.
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Bieber and Gomez were romantically-involved for seven years from 2011, calling it quits in 2018 after several months on-off.
The 'Baby' hit-maker went on to marry model and Rhode boss Hailey Baldwin, 28 - with whom he welcomed a seven-month-old son named Jack Blues back in August.
Gomez, meanwhile, went on to briefly date a stream of fellow big-name stars, including Zedd, Charlie Puth, Drew Taggart and Zayn Malik.
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She also enjoyed a brief relationship with The Weeknd following her split from Bieber.
Apparently, however, Bieber isn't quite ready to let go of his former flame, with some online critics believing a meme he shared on Instagram being aimed at Gomez' recently-announced engagement to 37-year-old musician Blanco.
The father-of-one shared a video of the Lord of The Rings character Gollum - a Stoor Hobbit of the River-folk made famous in the film franchise by voice actor Andy Serkis - reaching out for a ring. The creature could also be seen uttering his signature catchphrase, 'My precious'.
The meme shared by Bieber was captioned, 'Girls on social media when they get engaged'.
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Despite not explicitly mentioning the Only Murders In The Building actress, many followers received the impression that he's mocking Gomez and Blanco's sweet relationship milestone.
One critic hit out: "He's been married for 8 years and has a child at home to take care of, but still shading his ex on insta story....."
Another pointed out: "ironically he’s also shading his own wife too," before a third chimed in, "Hailey literally never misses a chance to show off her engagement ring."
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Following the controversy, some fans believe that Blanco has since responded to Bieber's damning Instagram upload.
The music producer took to the app to share a meme of his own, showing the Shrek character looking pretty sorry for himself.
Whilst he didn't mention the 'Sorry' singer in the post in any capacity, some fans of he and Gomez have linked the post to another scene in the children's film, where the titular character tells Donkey: "Fiona and I are married now, we need a little time to be together, just with each other.
"Just with each other," Shrek adds. "Alone."
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After the connection was made by a fan on TikTok, one penned in the comments, "Ok I do feel a lil bad for Justin though. Benny was his best friend," referring to the fact the pair were close before Blanco and Gomez went public.
"It's 2025 and we still see problems about Justin and Selena," another jibed.
A third joked: "What’s funny is that Donkey kinda looks like Justin in that pic lmao."
Blanco and Gomez shared the news of their engagement with a collection of sweet photos captioned 'forever begins now...'.
Former Wizards of Waverley Place star Gomez could be seen in the snap enjoying a picnic of Taco Bell products, donning a jaw-dropping new marquise diamond ring. "Hey wait… that’s my wife," Blanco commented at the time.
Topics: Selena Gomez, US News, Justin Bieber, Benny Blanco, Hailey Bieber, Celebrity
Rhianna Benson