Why Justin Bieber's Mom Didn't Abort Him

Teresa Neumann : Sep 19, 2012
Courtney Hazlett – Today Show

Depressed, abused and suicidal, when Pattie Mallette found out she was pregnant at 17 she didn't know how she was going to keep her baby, but she was determined to do it "whatever it took."

(New York, NY)—On the Today show this week, Kathy Lee Gifford interviewed Justin Bieber's mother, Pattie Mallette, providing the world with a personal insight into the singing sensation's very existence.

Mallette began by talking about the sexual abuse she had endured as a child and how she found herself pregnant at only 17 years of age.

Of the abuse, Mallette wrote in her new book, "Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber's Mom," that she was so shamed by it she tried to kill herself at one point. "I was in a depression," she said, "and the drugs and alcohol kind of spurred that on some more."

Bieber's mother said that when she discovered she was pregnant, she was encouraged to abort the baby.

"I just knew I couldn't," she told Gifford. "I just [knew] I had to keep him. . . and do the best. I didn't know how I was going to do it [but] I was determined to do whatever it took."

"I know this sounds crazy," she added, but when her son was born, "he sounded like singing."