Russell Brand Revisited His Joke About Justin Bieber and Diddy

Brand recalled meeting Bieber at the Grammy Awards while he was with Perry, whom he married in 2010. “I met Justin Bieber at the Grammys when I was with Katy Perry, and we had an ongoing joke about adopting him and all his subsidiary rights,” he wrote on X. The quip referred to Bieber’s commercial success as a teenager, when his music, merchandise and public image were part of a fast-growing entertainment business.

Reflecting on the joke in April 2025, Brand wrote: “Only now do I realise that Diddy may have been exploiting him, and that changes how I feel about that joke!” In the accompanying discussion, he suggested Combs might have taken advantage of Bieber beyond the joke about acquiring the singer’s rights. Brand provided no evidence for the allegation, which was speculation.

Renewed online attention to Bieber and Combs followed the resurfacing of old footage. A widely circulated 2009 video showed 15-year-old Bieber with Combs, who discussed spending 48 hours with the singer and made remarks about activities they would not disclose publicly, according to People. In a 2011 appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, Combs called Bieber a younger-brother figure and said people in the industry wanted to protect him. The footage does not establish abuse or criminal misconduct.

In May 2025, Bieber’s representative told Reuters that the singer was not among Combs’ victims, while noting that others had been harmed. Brand’s remarks resurfaced again after his own case: on November 9, 2026, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after being convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The Crown Prosecution Service said the offenses involved four women and took place between 2004 and 2009. There is no evidence Bieber was involved in Brand’s offenses, and Bieber has not publicly accused him of misconduct.