Pattie Mallette, Justin Bieber’s mother, has opened up about the challenges she faced as a teenager, from surviving abuse to choosing to keep her baby despite pressure to terminate the pregnancy.

In her memoir, Nowhere But Up, Mallette shares how years of sexual abuse left her feeling shame and self-blame. “It’s something so many survivors experience,” she said. The trauma led to depression, substance abuse, and a suicide attempt. “It was a breaking point,” she recalled.

At 17, Mallette became pregnant with Justin. Many urged her to have an abortion, but she refused. “I didn’t know how I was going to manage, but I was determined to do my best,” she explained. The moment Justin was born, she knew she had made the right choice. “His cry sounded like music,” she said.

Raising Justin as a single mother wasn’t easy, but her faith and love kept her going. Her story is one of resilience, showing how she overcame hardship to raise one of the world’s biggest stars. “I didn’t have all the answers,” she admitted, “but I was committed to giving him the best life I could.”