Hailey Bieber and Justin Bieber have shared some behind-the-scenes of their relationship on Justin’s YouTube docu-series Seasons, where the couple reflected on their first years of marriage. But now Hailey is opening up about the years prior to their 2018 engagement and how the two prepared for marriage after rekindling their romance.

“Everything happened really fast. You know, I think everybody knows that,” the 23-year-old model said during Ashley Graham’s podcast Pretty Big Deal. “Everybody was kind of like, ‘Hey, did you get married?’”

The engagement and subsequent nuptials seemed like a shock to some, although Hailey says that she and Justin had long discussed their future together and even their desire to be married at a young age. “We’d been having conversations like that since we were really young and for a long time. I just don’t think people knew the history because I was also so private about everything and people made their own perceptions,” she said.

Still, the reality of being married as a young adult took adjusting, especially after the couple had spent time apart after first dating while Hailey was a teen.

“I mean, getting married at 21 is really scary,” she admitted. “Although I felt like I had lived a lot of life and I always knew I wanted to be married young, I always had this idea in my mind like if Justin and I ever end up back together, we’re gonna be like way later in life. He’s gonna be like 30 and have figured it out and if not, we’re never gonna be together.”

After the couple confirmed their seemingly sudden engagement in July 2018, Hailey said they began counseling to work through the “hurt” that they had experienced in their earlier relationship. Hailey even shared how being with the pop superstar as a teen impacted her while growing up.

“I started hanging out with him and spending time with him very early. So I was like 17, 18 years old. So because I came from this Christian household and this background where I was the homeschooled girl who was doing their thing and kind of inexperienced and not a drinker, not anything,” she said. “I just experienced a lot of things for the first time with him and like there were scenarios where I felt like this was just too much for an 18-year-old. It was a lot.”

Hailey added that “contrary to popular belief” she and Justin had both been single for some time before rekindling their romance. “I think it was the best thing that ever happened for the two of us, honestly,” she said of that time apart. Since being back together, they’ve turned to therapy to make them closer.

“We just have built a lot of trust because we really went like zero dark thirty in the beginning. We went to the source of so many different things and did so much unpacking that it’s like, we’re now at the place where, I mean, it keeps getting better,” she said. “I just love him and I want to support him and he’s always going to matter to me.”