Selena Gomez Drops Shady Comment on Hillsong Leader's Instagram

Selena Gomez threw shade at her former Hillsong buddy, Aodhan King, on his Instagram post marking his 30th birthday.

The Australian-born King is described as a worship leader and songwriter at Hillsong and was regularly photographed with Gomez before she left the church in 2020.

The pair would appear on each other's Instagram stories and take vacations together, but it seems the relationship has soured, based on the pop star's comment.

King posted a photo of himself on a yacht in Sydney Harbor to mark his big birthday on December 28, 2022.

He simply captioned the post "30" and while many of the comments congratulated him on the milestone, Gomez's vibe was somewhat different.

"Remember when we were friends," she wrote in early January.

It seemed like her comment was in jest as King replied, "haha we're still friends :)."

It's not the first time Gomez has jokingly trolled King, once using her friend Ashley Cook's Instagram account to tell him to "delete" a selfie in 2018.

Brian Houston founded Hillsong with his wife Bobbie in Sydney in 1983. It went on to become a global megachurch with services in 30 countries on six continents. The church claims around 150,000 people attend its services every week, according to its website.

It counted Hollywood megastars such as Justin and Hailey Bieber, Vanessa Hudgens and Chris Pratt among its followers.

But many celebrities jumped ship when Bieber's personal pastor, Carl Lentz, was fired from the church in 2020 for "moral failure" and "leadership issues and breaches of trust."

Things have become worse for Hillsong after Houston himself stepped aside as global director of the church when he was accused of illegally concealing child sexual abuse by his late father.

Houston pleaded not guilty to the charge in a Sydney court, claiming the victim had asked him not to go to police.

During the trial he spoke of other abuses his father, Frank Houston, had committed when Houston was a boy and only learned about recently.

"I have no doubt now my father was a serial pedophile and we'll probably never know the extent of it," told the court in December 2022, and reported by news.com.au.

His trial will continue in June 2023.

Hillsong announced in April 2022 that it had accepted Houston's full resignation after it was found he had breached the church's moral code by having inappropriate relations with two women.

The first incident happened about 10 years ago when he sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member who later resigned. Then in 2019, he allegedly went into a woman's hotel room during a Hillsong conference, according to news site Crikey.

"Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and [wife] Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace, and love of Jesus Christ," read Hillsong's statement at the time.

"Hillsong Church was birthed out of Brian and Bobbie's obedience and commitment to the call of God and we are extremely grateful for all that Brian and Bobbie have given to build His house. "