“I literally cry about this all the time!” Bieber, 26, shared in a new interview with the Sunday Times. “I want kids so bad but I get scared. It’s enough that people say things about my husband or my friends. I can’t imagine having to confront people saying things about a child."

But her concerns about being subjected to online criticism hasn't put off her dreams of having a family. "We can only do the best we can to raise them," she says of having kids with her pop star spouse one day. "As long as they feel loved and safe.”

As the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, Bieber grew up in the entertainment industry. But that didn't prepare her for the level of online criticism she'd face as an adult, fielding attacks on everything from her looks to her marriage to the "Sorry" singer. That criticism came to a head back in March, when it was revealed that Bieber had received death threats from people claiming to be fans of her husband's ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez. (Gomez promptly clarified that that is "not what she stands for" and asked them to stop.) The attacks stemmed from rumors that Hailey's relationship with the pop star overlapped with Gomez's, even though Hailey previously denied any overlap in an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast. After that ordeal, Bieber has said she has finally “accepted” there’s “no winning ever” when it comes to how the internet feels about her.

During the interview, the Rhode founder also touched on her April Instagram story about 2023 including “some of the saddest, hardest moments” of her life.

“I just felt like I was going through a lot of uncomfortable growth," she told the U.K. publication when asked to clarify what her message meant. "Whenever you’re transitioning from one time of your life to another, it’s really uncomfortable and it can be really sad. … I was just trying to connect with other people who might feel that way." Some people, she noted, responded to the post with “negativity.”

“People say, ‘Oh, you think we feel bad for you?’ And I get it. It’s just sad sometimes that that would be how people feel about you wanting to express your emotions,” she said.

Fame and online chatter has also made it difficult to navigate health challenges, the model shared. Last year, Bieber suffered a mini-stroke which led to the discovery that she had Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), a heart condition in which a hole exists between the left and right side of her heart. While she celebrated the 1-year mark since that discovery last month, Bieber says the public nature of her diagnosis was a bit overwhelming.

“The day after I was hospitalized, it was on the internet,” she said. “I wanted to talk about what happened in my own words because so many people were making assumptions.”

Still, she refuses to allow her critics to control how she lives.

“If you let things like that silence you, you’re allowing people to dictate how you live your life,” she says. “Sometimes I do just want to curl up and be a hermit, like, ‘If this is how people feel maybe I should just stay home.’ But I’m really not that kind of person.”