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The Weeknd (L) and Bella Hadid attend the “Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology” Costume Institute Gala
Super Bowl LV welcomed The Weeknd, aka Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, for its halftime show. The Weeknd has been one of the most popular recording artists of the last five years, earning three Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey in 2016.
But what about his personal life? Is he married or seeing anyone? No, he is currently single, but he has dated a pair of high-profile ladies. Here’s what you need to know about The Weeknd’s past relationships.
He Dated Bella Hadid Twice
GettySinger The Weeknd and model Bella Hadid attend Heidi Klum’s 19th Annual Halloween Party
The Weeknd and model Bella Hadid started dating in 2015, just as he was bursting onto the music scene. He revealed in a Rolling Stone profile that he asked her to be part of his album artwork for Beauty Behind the Madness — but she said no.
“I actually asked her to be on the artwork for Beauty Behind the Madness. My motive was literally to work with her,” said the artist, but when she turned him down, they met up in person and the romance “just kind of fell into [his] lap.”
He also said that if he had met someone two years prior, he wouldn’t have been able to handle a serious relationship.
“I probably would’ve f***ed it up. But I’m more — how do I say it? — clear-thinking now,” said The Weeknd.
The two dated for almost two years, breaking up in late 2016. Shortly after the breakup, Hadid told Teen Vogue, “I’ll always respect him, and I’ll always love him. Sometimes you want to be sad about it or handle it differently, but at the end of the day, you never want to burn a bridge that you’ve fought so hard to build.”
In 2017, The Weeknd dated singer Selena Gomez for most of the year, then he and Hadid reconnected in 2018, even attending Heidi Klum’s annual Halloween party dressed as Lydia and Beetlejuice from Beetlejuice.
But in late 2019, they split again, with a rep for The Weeknd telling People that they celebrated Hadid’s 23rd birthday “as friends.”
The Weeknd and Selena Gomez
These two singers dated throughout 2017, with their breakup coming just as The Weeknd’s EP My Dear Melancholy dropped, which earned a lot of talk about it being his “break-up” album.
When asked about it in a profile for TIME, The Weeknd said, “I don’t want to open that Pandora’s box, talking about relationships,” but he did admit that it was “therapeutic” to write it — “You want to get it out. It’s like you close a chapter.”
He then admitted that he had written an entire album that was scrapped because it was more “upbeat.”
“Prior to Melancholy, I had a whole album written, done. Which wasn’t melancholy at all because it was a different time in my life,” said the artist, adding, “It was very upbeat — it was beautiful.”
Gomez echoed his sentiments about their time together, telling Billboard in an interview, “Something that I’m really proud of is that there’s such a true friendship [between me and The Weeknd]. 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.”
Super Bowl 55 airs from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, immediately followed by the series premiere of The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah and Chris Noth.
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