Justin Bieber Defends Wife Hailey Bieber After Accusing Paparazzi of Misconduct

Justin Bieber accused the paparazzi of trying to take a photo up his wife Hailey Bieber‘s skirt when they were out at a West Hollywood, California restaurant Thursday night. The photographers insisted they were not trying to do so. The incident comes just a couple of weeks after Bieber released his latest album, Justice, on March 19. Bieber, 27, and Hailey, 24, married in 2018.

As Bieber and Hailey left The Nice Guy restaurant on Thursday, they were mobbed by photographers, reports E! News. As they got into a private bus, Bieber asked the photographers calmly, “Are you guys shooting underneath her skirt?” The photographers were reportedly surprised to hear the question. “Oh my god, please, Justin,” one said. “Why would someone shoot under her skirt?” another asked.

“That’s the question, right?” Bieber asked. Then another photographer again asked why they would do that. “Come on bro look at the videos…Hey bro, I hope you have a good night, man. Bro, bro, bro, no one would do that, brother,” another photographer said. A source involved in the incident told E! News no one was trying to get a photo up Hailey’s skirt. Photographers had to get under a curtain barrier on the sidewalk to get photos of the famous couple, but they did not intend to get an under-skirt photo.

The Biebers are now over two years into their marriage. In a new interview with Elle, Hailey admitted their first year as a married couple was “very difficult.” In the beginning, “I just wanted to hide,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want people so in my business. I feel like everybody’s up my a—.’ I was like, ‘Can there be no anonymity? Can I have any of it back?’” Hailey faced trolling so intense that she changed her Instagram settings so only people she follows can comment on her posts. “I think any relationship can fail, Hollywood or not,” Hailey, the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, said. “Is it harder in the public eye? Absolutely. But I think the two of us are grounded by our faith. I’m not saying it’s this easy-peasy thing that doesn’t take work. We talk to a therapist. We do what we have to do.”

Meanwhile, Bieber is running into some backlash for his new album, Justice. The record features audio clips of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., which many found tone-deaf for an album filled mostly with love songs about Bieber’s relationship with Hailey. One track is even titled “MLK Interlude,” which features a segment from one of King’s speeches about civil disobedience. However, the very next track is “Die For You,” which has nothing to do with King’s fight for civil rights. Grammy-winning French dance duo Justice also sent Beiber a cease-and-desist letter because the typeface for the Justice album title is similar to the group’s stylized logo.