Last week, Sean âDiddyâ Combs was indicted on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges and taken into custody in New York. His arrest brought renewed attention to a spate of disturbing allegations against him, which have been detailed in multiple lawsuits accusing him of abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and nonconsensual pornography. With more specifics expected to emerge when his trial starts, rumors have run wild online about what else Diddy might have used his power and wealth to keep hidden.
One resurfaced video that raised a lot of questions shows the music mogul hanging out with a 15-year-old Justin Bieber. Posted to Justinâs YouTube account in November 2009 and titled âJUSTIN BIEBERâs 48 HRS with DIDDY!!,â the video shows Justin joking about driving one of Diddyâs cars before the pair shares that theyâre about to spend two days together. âWhere we hanging out and what we doing, we canât really disclose,â Diddy says, âbut itâs definitely a 15-year-oldâs dream.â He adds, âFor the next 48 hours, heâs with me. Weâre gonna go buck full crazy.â When Diddy asks Justin what he wants to do, the teen says, âLetâs go get some girls,â prompting the then-40-year-old mogul to call him a âman after my heart.â
In the wake of the sex-trafficking charges against Diddy, the video looks a lot more sinister. Justin probably met Diddy when he was 13, after he was plucked from YouTube obscurity and became a protĂ©gĂ© of sorts to Usher â who himself had been mentored by Diddy in the â90s when he was an up-and-coming teenage musician. (Usher later recalled witnessing some âvery curious things taking placeâ but has mostly reminisced fondly about his time at âPuffy Camp.â)
Although Bieber and Diddy didnât make music together until last year when Bieber was featured on Diddyâs album, it seems the two spent a fair amount of time together when Bieber was younger. The earliest clip has aged the worst, but another unsettling video appeared on Diddyâs YouTube page in December 2010; in it, Diddy presents Justin with a letterman jacket after asking why they havenât been hanging out anymore, prompting an apparent bout of nervous stuttering from the young singer. âYou ainât been callinâ me and hanging out the way we used to hang out,â Diddy tells Justin, as the 16-year-old sways back and forth before joking that Diddy doesnât have his number anymore. (The video turned out to be a promo for Diddyâs album Last Train to Paris.)
Clips from later years appear to show Bieber at various parties and clubs with Diddy and his friends, some of which seem to involve him drinking, though itâs hard to tell how old he is. In yet another resurfaced video, this one from a 2014 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, KhloĂ© Kardashian recovers from a weekend of partying until 5:30 a.m. with a group that includes Bieber and Diddy at an event where âhalf the people were butt naked.â (Bieber would have been about 20.)
Amid widespread concern, a fake Justin Bieber song called âLost Myself at a Diddy Partyâ started making the rounds on TikTok (the audio actually first surfaced in April but spiked in popularity following Diddyâs arrest this month). Experts have said the song is likely AI generated.
While thereâs no evidence he wrote a song detailing alleged sexual abuse at Diddyâs parties, Bieber has talked about how vulnerable he was as a child in the entertainment industry. In one 2020 interview clip thatâs been circulating alongside the Diddy footage, he tearfully talks about wanting to âprotectâ Billie Eilish, who also started her music career at 13. âIt was hard for me being that young and being in the industry, and not knowing where to turn and everyone telling me they love me and turn their back on you in a second,â Bieber told Zane Lowe. âI donât want her to go through anything I went through. I donât wish that upon anybody.â
It seems Bieber and Diddy spent more than enough time together for Bieber to be shaken by the news that Diddy had been slapped with a federal sex-trafficking indictment. Following Diddyâs arrest, the Daily Mail claimed Bieber is âso disturbed by the Diddy news and is unwilling to process it or discuss it so he has shut off.â Their source emphasized that âso many people who helped to make him who he is were very close to Diddy and it has completely thrown him.â
People, however, said Bieber is âaware of Diddyâs arrest and all the allegationsâ but âwants to focus on being a great dad and husbandâ and has been âin a happy bubbleâ since his baby arrived.
The Cut has reached out to Bieberâs representatives for comment and will update this post if we hear back.