Once upon a time, before she became a global pop phenomenon herself, Billie Eilish was just like any other wide-eyed youngster with posters of Justin Bieber adorning her bedroom walls. The now 21-year-old pop icon has been rather candid about her teenage crush on Bieber, admitting that her feelings for the “Sorry” singer were so intense, they’d often reduce her to tears.

Fast-forward to the present day, where Eilish, now also an icon in the music industry, finds herself in a rather close-knit friendship with Justin and his wife, Hailey Bieber. As the lines between fandom, friendship, and romance blur, one question lingers in the air: Does Billie Eilish still harbor a crush on Justin Bieber?

Billie Eilish Once Had An Intense Crush On Justin Bieber

Long before her meteoritic rise to fame, Billie Eilish, like many wide-eyed teenage girls, was a huge fan of Justin Bieber, then took over the airwaves with hits like ‘As Long As You Love Me,’ ‘Beauty And A Beat’, and ‘Boyfriend.’ “It wasn’t like I was just a fan, man,” she admitted to Marie Claire in February 2019. “I’ve been in love before, and it was with him.”

But that’s not all, Billie’s affection for Justin went far beyond admiration; it was a whirlwind of emotions that sometimes reduced her to tears. “I literally remember sobbing into a pillow because I thought, ‘I’m never gonna feel this way about anyone,’” she disclosed in her 2021 documentary, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry.

So intense were the pop icon’s feelings for Bieber that her parents contemplated taking her to therapy to help her navigate the seemingly endless flurry of emotions. “We did consider taking you to therapy, for how incredibly… you were in so much pain over Justin Bieber,” Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird, revealed during an episode of Eilish’s Apple Music show, Me & Dad Radio. “It was so intense. It caused you so much pain.”

In fact, having experienced first-hand the emotional turmoil that comes with harboring such intense unrequited feelings, Eilish now empathizes with fans who adore her in similar ways. “People at my meet-and-greets have said: ‘Billie, I feel the way you feel about Justin Bieber about you,’ and that blows my mind,” the pop icon revealed to The Guardian in 2019. “I just feel bad because if that’s actually true?, I’m sorry, bro. I do not mean to be putting anybody in the position I was in. That s*** hurts.”

Billie Eilish Has Built A Close Friendship With Justin Bieber And His Wife Hailey

Despite her intense teenage crush, Billie Eilish didn’t particularly relish the idea of meeting Justin Bieber in person. “I don’t even want to meet him,” she admitted to Marie Claire in her 2019 interview. “I don’t want to cry in front of him.”

But little did she know that fate had put very different plans into motion. Just months after her Marie Claire interview, Eilish attended the 2019 Coachella Music Festival, where she found herself face-to-face with none other than Bieber himself.

In the months that followed, their friendship blossomed into something so extraordinary, it brought Bieber to tears during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.

“I just wanted to be a good example. It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn and everyone telling me they loved me and … you know … just turn their back on you in a second,” he said of his friendship with the now 21-year-old pop phenomenon.

“So If she ever needs me, I’m going to be here for her…just protecting those moments because people take for granted,” he continued. “I just want to protect her, you know? I don’t want her to lose it, I don’t want her to go through anything I went through. I don’t wish that upon anybody. So, if she ever needs me, I’m just a call away.”

But the story doesn’t end there, as Hailey Bieber, Justin’s beloved wife, and a longstanding fan of Eilish’s music, also found herself relishing the idea of having Eilish as a friend. “I’m really looking forward to seeing Billie Eilish,” she told Women’s Magazine ahead of the 2019 Coachella Music Festival. “I love her a lot. I think she’s fantastic, and I’ve never seen her [perform] live.”

Does Billie Eilish Still Have A Crush On Justin Bieber?

As things stand, Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber are nothing more than good friends – and that’s no secret, as Eilish proudly proclaimed during her appearance on SiriusXM Hits 1’s Morning Mash Up in July 2021.

“He’s a good friend of mine,” she said. “He, you know, has been so helpful for me, in terms of just, like, dealing with fame,” Eilish revealed. “And he’ll call me sometimes and just say stuff that makes me just feel heard, and like there’s somebody else that goes through the same stuff.”

The twosome has apparently bonded over attaining fame at an early age, with Justin eager to provide Eilish with a listening ear; something he’s admitted to missing out on during his rise to fame.

“He said something that was so heartbreaking, which was like, ‘I’m just really glad that honestly you have me to talk to about this because I actually understand, and there’s really, you know, almost nobody in the world can know what it was like except kind of you and me and a few others,’” Eilish revealed during her March 2023 appearance on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, “And he was like, ‘I wish I had a me to talk to when I was starting out and doing all that and going through everything ’cause I didn’t, and I was alone.’”