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He was just 13 years old when he was discovered by music mogul Scooter Braun and with his sweeping fringe and perfect voice, it was clear to those around him that Justin Bieber was born for pop stardom.
And at the time, his chance to make it big seemed like the saving grace his family needed.
Originally from Ontario in Canada, Justin’s mother was 18 when she gave birth to him in a home for single mothers after struggling with addiction, while Justin’s father was in jail.
However, when Justin signed his first record deal in 2008, he was left potentially vulnerable to some of the industry’s most dangerous and predatory stars – with his friendship with P Diddy now under renewed scrutiny amid allegations of sex trafficking and racketeering offences against the rapper, though not involving Bieber.
From his father’s absence during his upbringing, to mixing with the likes of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and LA Reid it seems Justin has spent years surrounded by a toxic circle he could never really trust.
And as Justin continues to spark concerns after a worryingly tense and hollow-eyed sighting in New York on Wednesday, a source admitted to MailOnline that the star has been struggling with his mental health for a few years.
From his father’s absence during his upbringing, to mixing with the likes of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and LA Reid it seems Justin has spent years surrounded by a toxic circle he could never really trust
They explained: ‘Justin has been struggling for the last couple of years with his mental health and a significant part of that is down to his worry about being in certain public situations.
‘He has built up a deep fear of being out in spaces with lots of people and has a deep-seated worry about large crowds.’
The source added that his wife Hailey is encouraging him to spend time with those close to him rather than attend public outings where he will be surrounded by strangers.
They continued: ‘The toll of being locked away from the world is also tough. It is tough on a partner, like Hailey, who is supportive and wants to help him get through these moments.
‘Their recent trip to Aspen is an example of how she is encouraging him back out in public with close friends.’
And as Justin continues to withdraw from public life, we take a look at those around him through the course of his career.
The singer, 30, needed his parents more than ever at the time he was thrust into the spotlight as a teenager (pictured in 2011 with his mum Pattie, dad Jeremy and half sister Jazmyn)
Mother – Pattie Mallette
Justin’s mother Pattie Mallette was fundamental in her son’s early success after she put pen to paper to sign the legal documents as his career took off.
Pattie, 49, who gave birth to the Baby hitmaker at a home for teenager mothers a month before her 19th birthday, accompanied Justin on his first trip to Atlanta to meet music entrepreneur Scooter Braun and uploaded videos of Justin singing cover versions of famous songs to YouTube where his talent was discovered.
Suddenly emerged in the world of big record companies and talent agents, Pattie was out of her depth and vulnerable, especially after overcoming a difficult past.
Abused as a child from the age of five by a male babysitter and a friend’s grandfather, she’s recalled how she became so accustomed to being violated ‘that it began to feel normal’.
After abusing drugs and alcohol in her teenage years to mask the pain, she raised Justin in social housing and worked two or three jobs at a time to support them.
After years of struggle, it seems her naivety had a part to play in Justin’s path to a whirlwind life of fame, leaving him potentially vulnerable to some of the industry’s most dangerous and predatory stars.
Abused as a child from the age of five by a male babysitter and a friend’s grandfather, she’s recalled how she became so accustomed to being violated ‘that it began to feel normal’ (pictured in 2013)
Pattie, now 49, mainly raised Justin as a single mother, having broken up with his father shortly after his birth
Just a year after being signed to Island Records, a 15-year-old Bieber spent a now-infamous 48-hour period with Diddy seemingly unsupervised at the rapper’s home, where they went ‘full buck crazy’.
Sean Diddy Combs has now been charged with a host of sex trafficking and racketeering offenses with upwards of 120 alleged victims already coming forward, with the rapper’s relationships with Usher and Bieber coming under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the allegations. Combs denies the claims.
Questions have been raised about how such a doting mother could leave her only son in such a vulnerable position and allow Diddy to become a ‘mentor-like’ figure to him.
Sources close to Justin exclusively told the Daily Mail that he ‘should never have been allowed to party with Diddy or anyone else when he was a teen.’
They claim he was ‘thrown to the wolves’ by his mother and largely absent father Jeremy Bieber, with whom she split a few months after Justin’s birth.
There is no evidence to suggest Bieber’s parents, Usher, or Reid knew about Diddy’s alleged criminal activity at the time.
Father – Jeremy Bieber
While Pattie endured an incredible amount of trauma in her formative years, the mother has also described her tumultuous relationship with his father, Jeremy, who was not exactly the doting dad Justin needed during his critical years.
On the day his son was born, Jeremy was in the county jail for getting into a fight – and remained there for the first 11 days of Justin’s life.
Jeremy has been described as a ‘deadbeat father’ who only resurfaced when Justin became successful, although Pattie has defended her former partner, insisting that he had ‘worked at becoming a better father’ before their son found fame.
She admits, however, that Jeremy struggled with substance abuse issues and was in and out of his life as he grew up after walking out when he was a baby, taking all their furniture.
He has also got other offenses on his rap sheet. In 1997 he was convicted of assault and sentenced to 90 days in prison.
Two years later he spent another 21 days in jail after violating his probation. He was also convicted of a second probation violation at the same time.
Then in January 2004 he was charged with assault again, but the case was dismissed.
Jeremy has been described as a ‘deadbeat father’ who only resurfaced when Justin became successful
Jeremy too led him astray when in 2014 Jeremy guided Justin, then 19, as he drag raced a Lamborghini in a residential street while allegedly under the influence of drink and drugs, which ended with the teen star being arrested
Not the best role model for Justin growing up, Jeremy too led him astray when in 2014 Jeremy guided Justin, then 19, as he drag raced a Lamborghini in a residential street while allegedly under the influence of drink and drugs, which ended with the teen star being arrested.
Justin, 19, had also been drinking underage with Jeremy the night before — the legal age limit in Florida is 21.
Then on January 31 in 2015, Jeremy was present again when his son was accused of smoking marijuana on a private flight and verbally abusing a flight attendant.
While most father’s provide for their teenage sons, the roles were reversed in Justin’s household and he became the one to fund Jeremy’s lifestyle, paying Jeremy a ‘$50,000 a month living allowance’, which he blew on boozy bash
He would often invite friends round to the house for the wild parties – which were sometimes attended by Justin as well.
Two years later, fans were disgusted when Jeremy bragged about his son’s penis size on social media when nude photos of Justin leaked.
Diddy
In 2009, one year on from being signed to Island Records by Reid, a 15-year-old Bieber spent a now-infamous 48-hour period with Diddy seemingly unsupervised at the rapper’s home, where they went ‘full buck crazy’.
In a video taken during that time and shared to YouTube by Bieber, Diddy, then 40, turns to the camera and says: ‘He’s having 48 hours with Diddy, where we hanging out [sic] and what we’re doing we can’t really disclose.
‘But it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream. We’re gonna go full, buck full crazy.’
In 2009, Combs ceased hosting his famous ‘White Parties’ for A-list friends and allegedly ramped up his seedier, notorious ‘Freak-Offs’ at which many of the crimes listed in the New York indictment are said to have taken place.
Prosecutors say over the course of ‘decades’ Combs enlisted legions of employees and prostitutes to stage elaborate, sometimes days-long, twisted displays at these ‘Freak-Off’ orgies, at which women were given drugs and forced into sexual acts with male sex workers.
Combs allegedly used ‘physical, emotional, and verbal abuse,’ to force women to comply, threatened them with firearms, or ‘hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair’.
He allegedly filmed the encounters and sometimes watched while masturbating.
During a March raid on Combs’s LA and Miami homes, investigators found over 1,000 bottles of lubricant and baby oil.
Justin is said to be ‘disgusted’ by the allegations against Diddy, who was a mentor to him early in his music career (pictured together in 2014)
During the time he was hanging out with Bieber, Combs was allegedly hosting his society event White Parties and seedier, notorious ‘Freak-Offs’.
Some of these ‘Freak-Offs’ allegedly went on so long that exhausted participants had to be given restorative IV drips, while others were left with serious injuries and teams were brought in to clean away the mess.
In October, Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee revealed he is representing a further 120 alleged
victims, 25 of whom were underage when they claim Diddy sexually abused them, typically drugging them with tranquilizers. At least one was reportedly a nine-year-old boy.
While there is no evidence that Bieber was ever at one of Diddy’s ‘Freak-Offs’ or ‘White Parties’, he certainly partied with the rapper during his youth.
In 2014, Khloe Kardashian recalled seeing Bieber at a recent event where ‘half the people there were butt-naked’. In February the same year, he appeared at the launch party for Combs’s drink brand, DeLeon, and was pictured topless
The following year the pair danced together at the 21st birthday party of Combs’s son – also called Justin – and then, two months later, they both appeared on stage during a Miami music festival.
The extent of Bieber’s drug use in his teens only became clear in recent years, with the singer being more candid about his addiction struggles, including admitting he started smoking marijuana aged 12 before going on to abuse pills and alcohol.
‘My security would come into my room at night to check my pulse,’ he said in a 2020 documentary. ‘People don’t know how serious it got. It was legit crazy scary.’
LA Reid
LA Reid is currently being sued for sexual assault and harassment by a former colleague at Arista records, Drew Dixon, who says he assaulted her twice in 2001 – on a private plane and in the back of his private car.
Dixon, who rose to Vice President of A&R during her employment at Arista and has previously accused Reid of misconduct, claims Reid impeded in her career and preventing her from signing and cultivating artists such as John Legend when she rebuffed him in other instances.
Justin’s big break came when Usher brought Bieber to music mogul Reid as a ‘gift’ when he was a ‘beautiful’ 14-year-old boy, Reid wrote in his tell-all memoir in 2016.
The former X Factor judge’s memoir pieces together how Diddy, Usher and Bieber all became interlinked and how he was the common denominator.
Reid wrote about his first interaction with Justin, who according to the music producer has a ‘beautiful’ face, trendy hair and natural charisma.
He recalled how Usher phoned him in October 2008 to ask if he’d be in his office all afternoon because he ‘had something he wanted to bring me’.
At 4pm, Usher arrived with ‘an adorable fourteen-year-old boy’.
‘This kid was beautiful, like a woman can be beautiful and men rarely are, and he turned it on as soon as he stepped into the room,’ Reid recalled.
After hearing him sing, Reid then decided to sign Justin ‘straight away’, and claimed his hair was ‘every bit as important as his songs and his voice’.
Reid wrote in his tell-all memoir about his first interaction with Justin, who according to the music producer has a ‘beautiful’ face, trendy hair and natural charisma. (Pictured L.A Reid (left) and Usher in 2010)
He explained: ‘Since he was a minor, it took a couple of days to get his parents involved and signed off.’
Justin quickly became involved with the Caught Up crew which featured P Diddy and it was also thanks to Diddy that when Bieber’s voice broke, it didn’t derail his future with Island Records.
By his own admission, Reid had wanted to drop Usher when the same thing happened.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, he revealed how P Diddy was the one to talk him around, telling him: ‘Don’t be a fool. Don’t sell your stock in Usher. He’s still going to be a star. He’s everything you thought he was the day you signed him.’
With that advice in mind, he hired a vocal coach to help Bieber through the transition.
‘I wasn’t that way to Usher. I didn’t give him the same kind of love and support at the time. But Puffy was right,’ he said.
Jay Z
Justin is also known to have rubbed shoulders with Jay Z at a nightclub in Miami back in 2013.
Trilled with his night of revelry with some of hip hop’s most iconic rappers, the tattooed Boyfriend singer tweeted the snap the following morning with the caption: ‘Last night with the fellas’.
Last year Jay-Z, 55, was accused late last year of gang-raping a 13 year-old girl with Combs.
Jay-Z has denied the attack took place at a VMA’s afterparty in September 2000, while an unidentified female celebrity watched.
The victim, now a 38-year-old mother-of-two, alleged that Diddy, who is awaiting trial on criminal sex trafficking charges, came into the room and said that she was ‘ready to party’ before he and Jay-Z forced themselves upon her.
The rapper’s lawyer is claiming there are ‘glaring red flags’ in the civil suit and Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has repeatedly strongly denied the woman’s claims and said that the accuser ‘filed a false complaint against me in the pursuit of money and fame’.
Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz
Former pastor Carl Lentz co-founded Hillsong in 2010 and transformed the religious group into a celebrity-loved megachurch.
Becoming a star in his own right along the way – he gained hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and mingled with some of Hollywood’s most elite, including Justin, who once referred to him as his ‘second father.’
It was revealed that the popstar had been baptized by the pastor in 2014, and even moved in with Lentz and his wife for six weeks in the same year.
But all of that came crashing down in 2020, when it was brought to light that he had been unfaithful to his wife, to whom he’d been married for 17 years at the time.
Not only was he exiled from the church, but the singer distanced himself from Carl amid the fallout.
In a shocking post at the time, Carl admitted to his infidelity and said he was ready to face the ‘painful consequences’ and ‘seek out the help that he needed.’
Speaking to the GQ in 2015, Lentz – who first met the popstar in 2008, when the singer was just 14 – recalled the moment Bieber got down on his knees, ‘ravaged by loss’ and sobbed, telling the pastor: ‘I want to know Jesus’.
According to the magazine account, the bap
tism finished with Bieber ‘wet and sobbing against Pastor Carl’s chest… born anew’.
It played a central role in transforming Bieber’s image from a partying ladies’ man to a clean-cut Christian devotee.
Carl co-founded Hillsong in 2010, and he transformed the group into a massive megachurch loved by a slew of stars, including Justin Bieber, who once referred to him as his ‘second father’
Usher
Justin’s big break came when Usher brought Bieber to music mogul L.A Reid and the rapper played a huge role in jump-starting Justin’s career.
While their relationship has always been seen as professional, in 2016, the Yeah singer revealed that he felt like a mentor, and Justin was more like family to him.
It was through Usher that Justin was introduced to Diddy, and the former has since expressed his reservations about the latter’s mentorship.
He said the rapper introduced him to sex, drugs and alcohol when he was far too young and told MTV in 2010 that he ‘wouldn’t pass on any of the advice he gave me.’
In 2016, Usher went a step further. When asked in an interview with Howard Stern if he would send his own child to live with Diddy, he replied ‘Hell no!’
And earlier this month fans noticed Justin is no longer following his longtime friend and former mentor Usher.
According to The Sun, he appears to have unfollowed Usher on Instagram recently, however Usher still follows the Boyfriend hitmaker.
Fans also noticed that Bieber was no longer following Allison Kaye, his former manager from SB Projects, as well as Kenny Hamilton, who served as his bodyguard for a short time in the late 2000s.
Justin’s big break came when Usher brought Bieber to music mogul L.A Reid and the rapper played a huge role in jump-starting Justin’s career (pictured in 2011)
Scooter Braun
Braun discovered Bieber on YouTube when the Baby singer was 13-years-old, and eventually linked him to the label he was working for with Usher, Raymond Braun Media Group.
Braun opened up on the ‘very different bond’ he shares with the Grammy-winning artist while speaking with Complex in 2012.
‘The common misconception – because I’m 13 years older than him – is that it’s a little brother,’ he said. ‘It’s more like an uncle or a dad.’
Braun said he ‘kind of realized it being on the road with Justin’s mom’ Pattie Mallette, adding that ‘she’s not a disciplinarian, and he needed that person in his life.’
Scooter announced his retirement from music management last June as he sets forth on his new role as a board member of Hybe and CEO of Hybe America.
Braun discovered Bieber on YouTube when the Baby singer was 13-years-old, and eventually linked him to the label he was working for with Usher, Raymond Braun Media Group (pictured January 2020)
Scooter’s retirement comes after he lost clients such as Ariana Grande, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Demi Lovato.
Justin was also reported to have left him in August 2023, but reps for the Sorry singer denied that he had left Braun last year and noted that the had signed another four-year contract in 2022.
However an insider revealed that while he still managed the Canadian star, he hadn’t talked to him in almost a year.
‘Justin’s been working on his new record for the last six months,’ a source told the People.
‘Scooter and SB Projects have not set up one session or done one thing for this record, the source said, adding that the Peaches singer’s ‘relationship with Scooter has run its course.’
