Justin Bieber, who first rose to fame as a teen star with his early hit “Baby,” has been accused of sexual assault. After a twenty-four hour period of silence, the singer-songwriter has now posted a reply on social media in which he denies the allegation and vows to take legal action.
According to the woman who made the allegation, the assault took place on March 9th, 2014. Staying at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, Texas, this woman – whom Deadline says is named Danielle – consensually made out with Bieber, but objected to “going too far.” When the celebrity reportedly didn’t respect her wish, she described that her “body felt unconscious” and doesn’t “want to go into detail about what happened next.”
I don’t normally address things as I have dealt with random accusations my entire career but after talking with my wife and team I have decided to speak up on an issue tonight.
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
The allegation, which was made on Twitter, quickly spread around the internet, so much so that it eventually caught the attention of Bieber himself. After talking with his wife and team, he said in a response posted the next day that he decided to speak out against the allegation only because he maintains it’s false.
“Rumors are rumors but sexual abuse is something I don’t take lightly,” he tweeted. “I wanted to speak out right away but out of respect to so many victims who deal with these issues daily I wanted to make sure I gathered the facts before I made any statement.”
Bieber says that “there’s no truth to this story” and that he will “soon show” that he was never present at the location mentioned in the allegation. Although he admits that he was in Austin at the designated time to perform at the film festival SXSW, he says he was there with his then-girlfriend, fellow performer Selena Gomez.
“Every claim of sexual abuse should be taken very seriously,” Justin Bieber concluded his statement. “However this story is factually impossible and that is why I will be working with twitter and authorities to take legal action.”
