Justin Bieber promised to ‘protect’ Billie Eilish from music industry

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A video of Justin Bieber vowing to “protect” Billie Eilish from the music industry has resurfaced following Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest last week in New York City.

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In the interview, which was recorded in 2020 when Bieber was speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to promote his Changes album, the London, Ont-born pop star tearfully talked about his experience becoming an overnight sensation when he was just a teenager.

“It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn, and everyone telling me they loved me, and (then) turn(ed) their back on you in a second,” Bieber said.

“I just want to protect her,” he said speaking of Eilish, who was 18 at the time. “I don’t want her to go through anything I went through. I don’t wish that upon anybody.” 

Opening up about his public struggles, which included charges for drunken driving, resisting arrest and driving without a valid licence after police saw the two-time Grammy winner racing in the streets of Miami Beach back in 2014, Bieber told Lowe that he had been “living in this shame” with “all this sort of stuff with my past.”

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He said that some parts of his younger life were “bad … it was dark.”

“Think about how young I was and so impressionable and you have everybody telling me how awesome I am at all times,” he said. “I just want people to understand the psychology of why I potentially could have problems in my life.”

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As Eilish made her way in the industry, Bieber promised to be there to support her.

“If she ever needs me I’m gonna be here for her. I’m just a call away,” he said. 

The now-father of one didn’t elaborate on his struggles as a young music star, but after Combs’ arrest last week on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, some people on social media are talking about the problematic behaviour Bieber may have been surrounded by when he was starting out.

In a resurfaced clip from a 2014 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Khloe Kardashian spoke about going to one of Combs’ parties where “half the people there were butt naked” and running into Bieber.

Another viral moment from the American Music Awards in 2012 also started making the rounds in which Bieber, then 18, was kissed inappropriately by Jenny McCarthy.

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“Wow. I feel violated right now,” said Bieber, as he tried to laugh off the exchange onstage. “Wow.”

Afterwards, McCarthy, who was 40 at the time, tried to make light of her behaviour.

“It was a little cougar scary,” she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “But I took the opportunity in the window, considering I’ll never get to do it again, and kind of molested him.”

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Other videos were shared to social media, including an awkward 2011 encounter with James Corden at the BRIT Awards in which the former late-night host asked Bieber to lean into him, going on to tell viewers at home, “I don’t ever remember smelling that good at 16.”

Elsewhere, when he appeared on Ellen Degeneres’ daytime show in 2015, she repeatedly pressed him about being photographed nude by paparazzi while visiting Bora Bora.

Bieber, who collaborated with Combs on last year’s Moments track from his The Love Album: Off The Grid, has reportedly been “thrown” by the accusations against the music mogul after police charged him with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution last week.

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According to a criminal indictment, Combs is accused of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that the rapper arranged, participated in and often recorded on video. The events would sometimes last days and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover, the indictment said.

An insider speaking to the Daily Mail said, “Bieber is so disturbed by the Diddy news and is unwilling to process it or discuss it so he has shut off.” 

Amid the allegations against Combs, who has claimed he is innocent, a separate source told PEOPLE that the musician is keeping a low profile with his wife, Hailey Bieber, and their new baby son, Jack Blues.

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“He’s aware of Diddy’s arrest and all the allegations,” the insider tells outlet. “It’s not anything that he wants to focus on, though. He just wants to focus on being a great dad and husband.”

After Combs’ properties were raided earlier this year, a clip that was shared to Bieber’s YouTube page in 2009 took on new life as it made the rounds on social media. In the video, captioned “JUSTIN BIEBER’s 48 HRS with DIDDY!!,” the Peaches singer and the Bad Boy Records founder spoke about their wild itinerary as they planned to spend 48 hours together.

“Where we hanging out and what we’re doing we can’t really disclose. But it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream,” Combs said in the video. “For the next 48 hours, he’s with me. And we’re gonna go full. Buck full crazy.”

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