It is now legal for Justin Bieber to have sexual intercourse with Sofia Richie.
The singer started to date the model earlier this month, going public with his relationship via a series of photos posted to Instagram after the couple traveled together to Tokyo.
Social media immediately blew up upon seeing these pictures because, for starters, social media always blows up any time Justin Bieber has a new girlfriend.
But there was a second reason why this romance has made an endless number of headlines:
Because Richie was only 17 years old at the time she started dating Bieber.
Justin is 22 and that difference just seems a bit icky to some critics.
It also seems a bit illegal in some states, depending on whether or not Bieber and Richie have had sex.
Richie, however, turns 18 years old today. And we think we know how she and Justin have been celebrating!
(They probably had a lot of sex.)
Bieber telling the world about Richie has created quite the $ hitstorm, of course.
Not long after sharing multiple snapshots of himself and Richie getting cozy in the backseat of a car, Bieber took to Instagram and issued a threat to his followers.
Too many of them had said really cruel things to Richie online, forcing Justin to tell everyone to stop talking smack… or else he’d make his account private.
“I’m gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don’t stop the hate this is getting out of hand,” Bieber captioned a photo of himself with Richie, adding:
“If you guys are really fans you wouldn’t be so mean to people that I like.”
This actually seemed like a pretty noble move in our eyes, as Bieber was standing up for his gal pal.
But Selena Gomez took issue with it. She called out her ex-boyfriend for making his relationship public in the first place.
She told him to keep his private life private, or accept the consequences.
Either way, she argued, Bieber should never blame his fans for their passion.
Following some back and forth between himself and Gomez, along with many comments left by fans of both singers, Bieber went one step further than making his Instagram account private.
He actually deleted it entirely!
For once, it doesn’t seem like Bieber did much wrong.
It’s totally inappropriate for anyone to say anything negative about Sofia Richie simply because she’s dating Justin Bieber. That’s absurd.
And it’s a solid move by Bieber to call folks out for their ridiculous statements.
Should he share certain photos on social media? Come on, everyone does that in this day and age.
And there’s no way Selena would have anything bad to say about pictures Bieber shared of her if the two of them were dating.
Gomez has since apologized for stirring up this mess, but sources say Bieber doesn’t want to hear it.
If we had to place a wager, we’d still say he and Gomez will get back together someday. It just seems like fate.
For now, however, Bieber is doing his own thing with Richie and, as of today, he can also actually DO Richie. Without concern of legal consequences.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOFIA RICHIE!