Any casual observer of Justin Bieber may think he’s going through it right now, what with those recent paparazzi pictures of him emerging from a church wearing slippers, a half-zipped hoodie with nothing underneath and a weird hat, while also sipping on a mug of unidentified liquid which had the words ‘Papa Bear’ on it.

Especially when you consider that this dishevelled public appearance comes amid the swirling rumours concerning his close relationship with P Diddy, who has been arrested on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage with prostitution.

But real ones know this is simply Biebercore. The man is obsessed with slippers (note: his previous dalliances with hotel slippers) and just generally enjoys wearing and doing things Outside that should strictly be reserved for Inside. He also can’t put an outfit together, something which famously caused a big hoo-hah when he appeared next to a ravishing, red mini-dress-clad Hailey Bieber for one of their date nights… wearing trackie shorts, a grey hoodie, Crocs and a snapback.

(Getty Images)

So no, current Justin Bieber is doing fine, from what we can tell. The singer and his model-turned-beauty mogul wife welcomed their first son in August, and have been reportedly locked into a “baby bubble” ever since, as per People. The same source told the online news outlet that he and Hailey are “even more in love since the baby arrived”.

But it’s not current Justin Bieber we’re all worried about. It’s his younger self.

Bieber and P Diddy, real name Sean Combs, bonded when Bieber was coming up in the music industry, aged 15. Many have become retrospectively concerned about this friendship since Combs’ arrest, with an old video emerging showing Combs saying that he was going to take “custody” of a teenage Bieber for 48 hours.

“Where we’re hanging out and what we’re doing, we can’t really disclose, but it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream. I have been given custody of him,” Diddy claims in the video.

“He’s signed to Usher — I had legal guardianship of Usher when he did his first album. I don’t really have legal guardianship of him, but for the next 48 hours he’s with me. And we’re gonna go buck fool crazy,” he adds. Diddy asks Bieber what he wants to do over the next 48 hours, to which the young singer says: “Let’s just get some girls, let’s go hang out with some girls.”

And it’s not just the Diddy video that has belatedly come to the surface. Numerous other clips of Bieber being sexualised or treated bizarrely by adults in the entertainment industry have arisen, leading many to question how he was allowed to be treated this way on such a public stage. The resurfaced clips have prompted mass outrage, with the term “Justice for Justin Bieber” gathering traction online.

In one soundbite, an interviewer asks then-15-year-old Bieber if he knows how to French kiss. He later reflected: “They were asking some really weird questions. I’m only 15 and my mom was like right there.”

Justin Bieber in 2009 (Getty Images)

In another, a radio host asks Bieber, “My parents never gave me the sex talk. Why don’t you give me the sex talk?” Bieber replies: “I really, I feel uncomfortable right now. Why do you want to know the sex talk from a 15-year-old boy? That’s pretty weird.”

Video clips showing Bieber’s strange mistreatment have gone viral, including one where Katy Perry squeezes then-18-year-old Bieber’s butt on camera, and when Jenny McCarthy kissed him on stage without consent at the 2012 American Music Awards.

Back then, the entertainment industry played into the running meme of Bieber’s “attractiveness”, utilising age-inappropriate behaviour to get laughs. But in the 2020s, where child stardom and abuse are known to have gone hand in hand, it feels ludicrous that this was allowed in recent memory.

After all, this was before the time of tell-all documentaries like Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, before Britney was vindicated by the Free Britney movement and her memoir, before Amanda Bynes was looked at with sympathy rather than second-hand embarrassment.

The industry failed Justin Bieber and we’re realising it all too late. Luckily, he’s doing just fine — even if his clothing choices are a little unconventional.

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