Los Angeles, Nov 5 (IANS): Singer Selena Gomez said that breaking up with pop singer Justin Bieber was the "best thing" that ever happened to her.

The 30-year-old singer, who split from Justin, 28, in 2018, makes the declaration on her new Apple + documentary 'Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me', reports aceshowbiz.com.

She said: "Everything was so public. I felt haunted by a past relationship that no one wanted to let go of. Then I just moved past it, and I wasn't afraid anymore. I feel like I had to go through the worst possible heartbreak ever and then just forgetting everything at the drop of a hat, it was really confusing. But I just think that needed to happen and ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Gomez dated Bieber on-off for eight years and the split inspired her 2020 song 'Lose You to Love Me', which she said took her 45 minutes to write.

She added on the show: "It's about more than a lost love. It's me learning to choose myself, to choose life, but also hoping that people can find grace and peace in that too. The song is about knowing that you completely lost every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again."

Bieber started dating his now-wife Hailey Baldwin, 25, just after they split and the month after Justin married Hailey, Selena reportedly suffered a breakdown connected to her lupus and entered treatment for her mental health.

Selena recently told Rolling Stone magazine: "I grew up thinking I would be married at 25. It wrecked me that I was nowhere near that - couldn't be farther from it."

She recently threw herself a lavish wedding-themed 30th birthday and said about it being attended by celebrities including Cara Delevingne: "We had lovely drinks, and it was beautiful, and then my friend Cara comes in and brings strippers. So I would like to say it was a mixture of sophisticated and hysterical."

Other guests at the party were Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, Camila Cabello and Gomez's younger sister, Gracie.