Why Selenan Gomez took off her purity ring

CEBU, Philippines – The days of  Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are gone. But for the rest of the world, one quick search can make it seem like the two young superstars are still attached at the hip.

“It’s difficult for people to separate us,” Gomez mused to The U.K’s Sunday Times. “The Internet wants to freeze this moment in time and constantly repeat it.”

The 23-year-old pop princess isn’t surprised by the fact that people have a hard time letting go of this now-defunct love story, however. In fact, she seems relatively at peace with this state of affairs.

“I didn’t think I was doing anything bad by falling in love,” she explained rather matter-of-factly of her tumultuous relationship with the Biebs, which began sometime in 2010. “There’s such an emphasis on people being the perfect thing and then destroying them because it’s good press. Throw in the fact that you are a teenager — it makes it more difficult.”

But just because she and Bieber had a rocky go hardly means Gomez has given up on love. In some ways, Gomez has always been a romantic at heart. Back before she started running around the world with Bieber, she dated Nick Jonas and wore a purity ring, which symbolized her decision not to have sex until she was married. (For the record, Jonas wore one too.)

Apparently, her father helped get it for her. “I said, 'Dad, I want a promise ring,’” she recalled. “He went to the church and got it blessed. He actually used me as an example for other kids. I’m going to keep my promise to myself, to my family, and to God.”

Not surprisingly, some people had a field day with that.

“Sometimes you have to lie to yourself to get through the criticism, and then you’re in your closet crying,” Gomez revealed. “It’s been like that for me a couple of times, but I only want to learn from those things.”

One thing Gomez learned as she got a bit older was that maybe a purity ring wasn’t right for her after all, and it came off when she started dating Bieber. “I’m not embarrassed to say that,” the “Good for You” singer explained of her decision to wear the famous piece of jewelry. “I’m also not embarrassed to say that the ring has come off. I got it was I was 13 and I respect so much what it represented, but it isn’t for everyone.”