The Heart Wants What It Wants hitmaker first wore the symbol of abstinence when she dated fellow Disney star Nick Jonas, who also wore a similar ring along with his bandmate brothers.

But eagle-eyed fans noticed she took off the ring shortly after she began dating Bieber in late 2010, and now Gomez is opening up about how her personal views on sex before marriage changed.

She tells the U.K.'s The Sunday Times, "I'm not embarrassed to say that. I'm also not embarrassed to say that the ring has come off. I got it when I was 13 and I respect so much what it represented, but it isn't for everyone."

And like the Jonas Brothers, Gomez was also an easy target to poke fun at for flaunting a purity ring, and she confesses some of the jokes were not so funny.

She says, "Sometimes you have to lie to yourself to get through the criticism, and then you're in your closet crying. It has been like that for me a couple of times, but I only want to learn from those things."

As for her three-year on-and-off relationship with Bieber, Gomez admits their highly-publicised love life was all about the pressure, adding, "It’s difficult for people to separate us. The internet wants to freeze this moment in time and constantly repeat it...

"I didn't think I was doing anything bad by falling in love. There's such an emphasis on people being the perfect thing and then destroying them because it's good press. Also, throw in the fact that you are a teenager... it makes it more difficult."