Hailey Bieber was giving an interview on the set of Quotidien during Paris Fashion Week. She had gone to promote Rhode’s arrival in Sephora stores in France.
The interview was going very well. Hailey was praising the city’s energy when suddenly she dropped an unusual line: “My husband is French, so I love that too”. But she said it with the confidence of someone commenting on the weather.
The host, Yann Barthès, looked at her as if he’d just misheard. He asked her if Justin wasn’t Canadian. She insisted: “He’s from Canada, but he’s also French”.
A panelist had to remind her, carefully so as not to set the studio ablaze, where her husband was born. Then came the question that changed everything: which part of France was he from? Hailey replied: “I’m not entirely sure”. Barthès, amused and resigned, asked her to let him know when she found out. No humiliation, just good-natured bewilderment.
But of course, the internet is never that kind and, worse, never forgets. The comments recalled that Justin was born in London, Ontario, and grew up in Stratford, and several compared her to those American tourists who swear they’re Irish because of some distant great-grandparent.
However, there’s one detail almost nobody knows: his mother, Pattie Mallette, has French-Canadian ancestry, and Justin spent part of his childhood in French immersion schools. He’s even sung in that language for a fan.
Hailey chose the wrong word: she should have said “of French descent”, not “French”. But perhaps she didn’t make up the connection; perhaps she repeated the story Justin tells himself at home.
The internet only knows her public biography; she knows the version they tell when the cameras are off.