Photo: Babak Rachpoot / Shutterstock, YouTube
From Jenny McCarthy groping him to James Corden smelling the underage Bieber, he has faced a lot of strange behavior from adult celebrities.
By Ethan Cotler — Written on Mar 31, 2023
Justin Bieber was thrust into the limelight as a heartthrob at a young age. At just 13 years old, record executive Scooter Braun discovered the Canadian singer, and just two years later, he dropped his worldwide success “Baby” with Ludacris.
What was dubbed "Bieber Fever" soon swept the globe as fans developed an intense obsession often likened to what was experienced by The Beatles at the height of their fame. However, in Bieber's case, the rise of social media and the intensity of the public eye meant the lines were blurred between his private and public life more often than they weren't.
And it wasn't just young fans who failed to give the now-29-year-old the respect and protection he deserved. In fact, often it was adults, who should have known better, who treated Bieber the worst.
Videos have resurfaced of celebs acting inappropriately toward a young Justin Bieber.
Fans are discussing how the star was mistreated in his early years of fame. Charles Peralo, who covers pop culture on the video-sharing app TikTok, posted an explosive video of instances of celebrities engaging in strange behavior with Bieber.
Ellen DeGeneres forced Justin Bieber to discuss a nude photo taken without consent.
In 2015, Bieber was just 20 years old when an invasive paparazzi photographed him naked while in a private resort in Bora Bora. Quickly uncensored photos of Bieber circulated the web and the star became the subject of ridicule.
When Bieber was later interviewed by Ellen DeGeneres, she displayed the photos for everyone to see without notifying him beforehand. She asked questions about them—even asking to publicly identify an anonymous woman in the photo’s background. Bieber covered his face with his hands, saying he was “blushing” due to the line of questioning.
Bieber may have laughed it off—perhaps because he had no choice but to do so—but the interaction was still wildly inappropriate and disrespectful.
James Corden smelled Bieber and made inappropriate jokes about his age.
In 2011, Corden hosted the BRIT Awards and included a segment interviewing Bieber in which the talk show host asked him to lean closer so he could smell him. He commented that the 16-year-old Bieber “smell[ed] amazing,” going on to say, “I don’t ever remember smelling that good at 16.” He complimented his eyes and was uncomfortably touchy with the teen.
Katy Perry and Jenny McCarthy both groped Justin Biber.
In 2011, Katy Perry pinched a recently 18-year-old Bieber’s butt backstage at a London concert. The singer joked and laughed about it for the cameras and made no apology for her inappropriate advance. But, horrifyingly, hers wasn't even the most egregious incident.
Jenny McCarthy groped Bieber at the 2012 American Music Awards, kissing his neck and grabbing his butt. He appeared visibly uncomfortable as he darted away from the 40-year-old actress. “Wow,” he said after approaching the mic once again. “I feel violated right now.”
McCarthy gave an interview after the show, elaborating on why she did it. “I did grab his butt. I’m single,” she said. “I gave him a kiss, and there was a lot of lipstick...I couldn’t help it; he was just so delicious. So little.”
“It was a little cougar scary,” she said, “but I took the opportunity in the window, considering I’ll never get to do it again, and kind of molested him.”
Radio hosts posed strange questions to an underage Bieber in live interviews.
One of the most shocking exchanges experienced by an underage Bieber was an unnamed adult host in an archived interview. According to a reuploaded version of the audio taken from Scott Fox and the Z103.5 radio show, the interview took place at the Grammy Awards in 2010.
"My parents never gave me the sex talk, so why don't you give me the sex talk?" the reporter asks Bieber. "Why do you want to know the sex talk from a 15-year-old boy? That's pretty weird," Bieber responded.
A study from Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA) found that 43% of men are sexually harassed or assaulted in their lifetime. But unfortunately, the conversation around these issues concerning men is still in its infancy.
It can seem unimportant to have these discussions revolving around a megastar like Bieber, where the only evidence comes from instances on television. But what if the gender roles were reversed and an adult man asked an underage woman to give the sex talk on live radio or a 40-year-old man groped and kissed the neck of an 18-year-old woman at an awards show?
We need to stop normalizing these occurrences because it harms the victims and sends the wrong message to the public about what’s acceptable.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.