Canadian singer, Justin Bieber has slammed recent reports claiming he is broke and in debt.
In a statement released by his team, they called the claims ‘clickbait stupidity’ coming from unreliable sources who are ‘disappointed that they no longer work with Justin.’
The statement was in response to The Hollywood Reporter article published on Wednesday, in which a former employee on Bieber’s team claimed the star was millions of dollars in debt after he cancelled his Justice World Tour after multiple postponements due to health issues.
In a statement about the story to Us Weekly, Bieber’s team vehemently denied the allegations.
‘This is just clickbait stupidity based on unnamed and clearly ill-informed ‘sources,’ disappointed that they no longer work with Justin,’ the statement read.
‘As Justin forges his own way forward, these unnecessary stories and inaccurate assumptions will continue. But they won’t deter him from staying committed to following the right path.’
‘Any source that is trying to sell you a story about alleged financial distress … either doesn’t understand the entertainment industry or, more likely, is trying to paint an unflattering portrait of Justin, which bears no resemblance to reality,’ Bieber’s team also told THR.
The statement was published in the outlet’s ‘Justin Bieber’s Crisis of Faith?’ article.
In THR’s reporting, a source alleged that when Bieber announced in February 2023 that he would be cancelling the remaining tour dates ‘triggered a series of financial consequences that are still plaguing the artist today.’
The tour was originally scheduled to begin in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic and then further delayed again in 2022 after he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused facial paralysis.
In March 2023, he cancelled the remaining tour dates indefinitely.
The article also alleged that Bieber was not only broke but owed a ‘large debt’ — approximately $20 million, according to their insiders — to tour promoter AEG after canceling his tour as he was reportedly given a $40 million advance prior to kicking off the tour.
‘To date, Bieber has only returned a portion of what he borrowed,’ the outlet claimed as multiple sources alleged Bieber is ‘overstretched’ financially.
This comes two years after Bieber shockingly sold his entire catalog of music for $200 million.
The outlet claimed that the initial deal was set for $140 million to the rumored buying Hipgnosis Songs Capital but Bieber’s team, which included his former manager Scooter Braun, negotiated the offer up to $200 million.
Sources told the outlet that his team hoped the larger sum would provide the singer ‘financial security’ for a longer amount of time.
