Justin Bieber took to Twitter on Sunday, June 21, to deny a woman’s claim that he sexually assaulted her following a performance at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in 2014.
“I don’t normally address things as I have dealt with random accusations my entire career but after talking with my wife [Hailey Baldwin] and team I have decided to speak up on an issue tonight,” he wrote in the first of a series of tweets on Sunday night.
“Rumors are rumors but sexual abuse is something I don’t take lightly,” the Grammy winner, 26, continued. “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.”
Earlier in the day, a woman named Danielle claimed that she was sexually assaulted by the “What Do You Mean” singer in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2014, after she went to his room at the Four Seasons Hotel following a surprise performance at the SXSW festival. The woman claimed that she had a “steamy make-out session” with Bieber that culminated with him unbuttoning her jeans before he “forced himself inside” her.
“There is no truth to this story,” Bieber tweeted on Sunday. “In fact as I will soon show I was never present at that location.”
He wrote that he did appear onstage but “what this person did not know was that I attended that show with my then gf Selena Gomez.”
Bieber shared a story from Us Weekly about her being there with him and posted photos that show him with his assistant on the side of the stage and then him and Gomez on the streets of Austin after the performance.
The singer also shared a tweet from a fan who claimed the following day that she saw him at the Four Seasons, later clarifying that it was at the restaurant. He insisted that he “never stayed at the Four Seasons on the 9th or 10th” and shared correspondence that showed that he stayed with Gomez and their friends at an Airbnb on the first night and at a Westin the following night.
“Every claim of sexual abuse should be taken very seriously and this is why my response was needed,” he concluded. “However this story is factually impossible and that is why I will be working with twitter and authorities to take legal action.”
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