Celebrity
Justin Bieber Says Paparazzi Behavior “Has To Stop”
The “Peaches” singer called for change after sharing a flash-filled POV of his encounter with photographers.
Justin Bieber has long been vocal about his frustration with invasive paparazzi. In a recent series of Instagram posts, he distilled those feelings into a pointed plea.
A Powerful Statement
Bieber’s encounters with paparazzi are typically captured by the photographers themselves. However, in a video posted on April 25, the “Peaches” singer shared his first-person perspective as he walked through a group of photographers waiting for him outside a gate.
“This has to stop,” he captioned the video, which features frequent camera flashes that can be difficult to watch — let alone walk through.
Bieber elaborated in several follow-up posts, writing that he won’t be “bullied” into leaving Los Angeles. “How can we make a change if we run from the darkness? I too have been caught up in the transactional nature of Hollywood,” he said. “It’s embarrassing but with that said, I want nothing to do with that as a grown adult with a wife and son.”
The musician — who welcomed son Jack Blues with his wife, Hailey Bieber, last year — lamented in another post “how f*cked it is out here,” noting that paparazzi behavior can have deadly consequences. “Princess Diana is the first that comes to mind,” he wrote. A 2008 inquest found that paparazzi’s pursuit of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed played a role in the car crash that took their lives.
“We gotta do better,” Bieber concluded his message. “Please can we make a change?”
The Couple’s Paparazzi History
This isn’t the first time Bieber has articulated the difficulty of life in the public eye. He described feeling “isolated” in a 2015 NME interview: “You’re in your hotel room and there are fans all around, paparazzi following you everywhere, and it gets intense. When you can’t go anywhere or do anything alone you get depressed.”
Hailey has voiced her feelings toward intrusive photographers, admitting on a 2022 Call Her Daddy appearance that she fantasized about destroying their cars. “This is a hypothetical situation, by the way,” the Rhode founder clarified.
While acknowledging that paparazzi “comes with the territory” of living in Los Angeles, she called out people who claim she “asked for” this kind of attention. “I didn’t ask for grown men to follow me around with cameras.”
Justin’s latest comments come on the heels of his calling out “mean and hurtful” comments. He specifically defended his marriage, saying, “It would be hard not to be jealous” of the pair’s relationship.
