Justin Bieber may not be the first former child star to wrestle with the trappings and pressures of fame, but the performer recently sparked concern once again after opening up about his struggles on social media.
In an Instagram post on June 16, the 31-year-old revealed he had been battling with his mental health.
“People keep telling me to heal,” the ‘Sorry’ singer shared. “Don’t you think if I could have fixed myself I would have already?
“I know I’m broken. I know I have anger issues,” Justin continued. “I tried to do the work my whole life to be like the people who told me I needed to be fixed like them. And it just keeps making me more tired and more angry. The harder I try to grow. The more focused on myself I am.”
The star went on to reveal he’s become drained from the intense level of scrutiny over his life, with the admission coming just days after a concerning confrontation with paparazzi. On June 14, Bieber was filmed unleashing in an 11-minute expletive-filled argument with photographers while leaving Soho House Malibu in California.
“Honestly I’m exhausted with thinking about myself lately aren’t you?” he added.
The day prior to his social media post, Bieber had shared a text exchange with an unnamed pal to Instagram.
In the screenshots, the singer ended their “short-lived relationship” as he wasn’t happy with the friend’s reaction to his anger.
“I will never suppress my emotions for someone,” he wrote. “Conflict is part of relationship. If you don’t like my anger, you don’t like me.” He added, “My anger is a response to pain I have been thru [sic]. Asking a traumatised person not to be traumatised is simply mean.”
After announcing he was stepping away from music back in 2019, following his meteoric rise to stardom a decade earlier, Justin has been plagued by a string of health issues that have seemingly had an impact on his once-flourishing career.
A Lyme disease diagnosis in 2020 was followed by temporary facial paralysis in 2023 due to Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
At the same time, the singer was forced to cancel his Justice World Tour and sell his music catalogue for $200 million in 2022 amid rumours of growing financial strain. He also officially parted ways – and began feuding – with his long-time music manager, Scooter Braun, in 2023.
His saving grace in all this has been his relationship with wife Hailey Bieber, 28, with whom he tied the knot in 2018, and their son, Jack Blues, who they welcomed together last August.
But even that has been the subject of scrutiny in recent months, following several bizarre posts and admissions from the singer.
For Justin’s first US Father’s Day on June 15, Hailey notably did not post a social media tribute to the star. Instead, she commented on his own post marking the occasion, in which he referred to himself as “a dad that’s not to be f–ked with”.
“Father’s Day sucks ass,” Hailey wrote, seemingly in response to his viral Mother’s Day jab, in which he said the same thing.
Justin also made headlines back in May while attempting to celebrate Hailey’s first Vogue cover.
The Grammy Award winner missed the mark when he publicly admitted to once bitterly telling his wife that she would never land the cover of the iconic fashion magazine. “Yikes I know, so mean,” he wrote.
While Hailey dismissed split speculation in her accompanying interview with Vogue, insiders say that, like his friends and fans, she continues to be concerned for her long-time lover and that “takes a toll”.
“[It’s] not an easy position to be in, especially while trying to balance new motherhood and her career,” a source told Radar Online.
