A throwback to Justin Bieber’s early career, pictured performing live in Minneapolis in 2012. Photo: Joe Bielawa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Jeremy Bieber was 18 years old when he became a father. His son would go on to sell more than 150 million records. Jeremy would go on to work construction sites, chase an MMA career that never took off, and rebuild his life three separate times with three different women.

This is the full story of the man behind the world's biggest pop star, and it starts long before Justin Bieber ever picked up a guitar.

A teenage romance that made him a father

Jeremy Bieber was born June 4, 1975, in Stratford, Ontario. He grew up in a modest household with three siblings, Bonnie, Brad, and Rob, in a family shaped by financial struggle.

He met Pattie Mallette when she was 15. The two dated on and off for four years, from 1990 to 1994. Mallette has spoken publicly in her own memoir about depression and a suicide attempt as a teenager, struggles that predated her relationship with Jeremy and that she has said led her toward faith.

Justin Bieber was born March 1, 1994. Jeremy and Pattie split shortly after. Pattie raised Justin almost entirely on her own, working multiple jobs while Jeremy stayed loosely connected through visitation.

A career that never quite landed

Before Justin's fame made the Bieber name a business, Jeremy tried to build his own. He played guitar in a string of local bands, teaching himself riffs from Bob Dylan and Deep Purple. He later pivoted to mixed martial arts, training as a fighter with hopes of going pro. That career stalled too.

Jeremy eventually moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and found steadier ground with a new partner, Erin Wagner. The couple had two children together, Jazmyn Kathleen Bieber and Jaxon Julian Bieber, giving Justin two more half-siblings he'd grow up seeing occasionally, not daily.

Once Justin's career exploded, Jeremy found a new role: producer. He's credited as an executive producer on the documentaries "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" in 2011 and "Justin Bieber's Believe" in 2013, riding his son's fame into the entertainment industry himself. Outside of that, he's worked as a carpenter and in construction.

The controversies

Jeremy's presence in Justin's life hasn't always played well publicly. He was by his son's side during Justin's January 2014 arrest in Miami on DUI and resisting arrest charges, a moment that drew heavy criticism of Jeremy's parenting from outlets and fans alike.

Later that year, Jeremy faced accusations that he'd thrown the family dog off a second-story balcony, a story that made national tabloid rounds. He also stirred backlash after a cryptic tweet many read as anti-LGBTQ. He tried to clarify his comments on Twitter, and largely made the situation worse in the process.

Despite the noise, Jeremy has remained a constant presence in Justin's adult life, appearing at award shows, album celebrations, and eventually, a wedding of his own.

The marriage with a 13-year age gap

Jeremy started dating Chelsey Rebelo in 2013. She was in her mid-20s. He was pushing 40. The age gap between them, 13 years, has stayed a fixed part of their story ever since.

He proposed in St. Barts in February 2016. Chelsey brought a daughter of her own into the relationship, Allie, born in 2007 from a previous relationship. The two married in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in February 2018, with Justin serving as a groomsman and reportedly performing piano at the earlier engagement party in Toronto.

Days after the wedding, Jeremy announced Chelsey was pregnant, posting a photo with the caption, "My beautiful wife and…." Their daughter, Bay Bieber, was born that August. "We welcomed a healthy baby 'Bay Bieber' born at 8:30 a.m.," Jeremy wrote on Instagram.

Justin posted his own tribute to his new sister. "Meet the newest bieber, my little sister BAY BIEBER," he wrote at the time. Years later, marking her second birthday, he added, "Dear baby sis, you will grow up to be a confident, strong, kind, compassionate powerful woman! Excited to watch you grow into the incredible woman you are Destined To Be!"

Five kids, three mothers, one blended family

Between Mallette, Wagner, and Rebelo, Jeremy has fathered five children total: Justin, Jazmyn, Jaxon, Bay, and stepdaughter Allie. Justin remains the only one who grew up largely without him in the house day to day.

The rest of the family has settled into a public, photographed normal. Chelsey regularly posts Toronto Maple Leafs games and family outings to her Instagram, where she's built a following in the hundreds of thousands. In March 2022, she shared a photo of Jeremy with all four of his other children at one of Justin's concerts, captioned simply, "Let's gooooooo @justinbieber."

Justin, for his part, has kept his father and stepmother close. When he headlined Coachella in April 2026 alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G, he thanked both of his parents from the stage, Pattie Mallette and Jeremy Bieber, a nod to the two very different households that raised him.

Jeremy Bieber never had the career his son did. He didn't stick with music, and the MMA dream died fast. What he built instead was a family that, thirty years after a teenage relationship fell apart, still shows up for every milestone, every concert, and every birthday, cameras rolling the whole way.