logo
Justin Bieber sparks new interest in his close friendship with Eddie Benjamin as he shares photos of the 23-year-old Australian singer

Justin Bieber sparks new interest in his close friendship with Eddie Benjamin as he shares photos of the 23-year-old Australian singer

Daily Mail​03-06-2025

Justin Bieber has sparked new interest in his close friendship with young Australian singer Eddie Benjamin.
The Peaches hitmaker, 31, who recently put on a racy display with wife Hailey to celebrate her $1billion Rhode deal, is currently on on a mountain getaway with some male friends and has prominently featured Eddie, 23, in several of his recent posts.
On Monday, Justin shared a carousel of photos which showed him singing into a microphone in a makeshift recording studio and enjoying a few games of golf and basketball with the Sydney musician.
It comes after Justin shared a dozen happy snaps of the duo goofing around together last week, with the Canadian hitmaker grinning and holding up two middle fingers to the camera while Eddie grabbed onto his shirt.
Eddie shared one of the photos to his own account, where he has 359,000 followers to Justin's 249million, and captioned it with a red love heart emoji.
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
'This friendship is strange,' one of the Maniac singer's fans commented, while another pointed out how inseparable the pair have become in recent months: 'Eddie must be his new best friend... these [two] are always together.'
Justin's working holiday with the boys comes after the pair collaborated on Eddie's new song MANIAC.
Justin released the song alongside an advert promoting his new SKYLRK fashion brand in April - sending fans into a frenzy.
The video, set to the soundtrack of MANIAC, featured a cartoon version of Justin riding a scooter to an abandoned house, which he sets alight before leaving and locking lips with a cartoon of his wife Hailey.
The pair then walk into a new building with their son Jack Blues in a stroller.
Justin and Eddie reportedly met through mutual friends in 2020 and formed a close bond based on a mutual respect for one another's musical talents.
Eddie has spoken about Justin as a close friend and confidant in several interviews, describing him as a go-to for emotional support in difficult times.
In 2022, Eddie opened the Justice world tour for Bieber and also featured in its documentary.
On Monday, Justin shared a carousel of photos which showed him singing into a microphone in a makeshift recording studio and enjoying a few games of golf and basketball with the Sydney musician
More recently, he opened up about the experience of writing music with Justin on the Zach Sang podcast in May.
'I think birthing ideas with the people you're with is really important,' Eddie said.
'He has such a big heart and his ears are out of this world. Justin is a really loving special human and has a lot of space and patience for people around him, which is huge.
'In this specific instance, it's a very flow state room. Nothing much happens if you're thinking. Often my brain will be doing too much and he... Justin is one of the people that, since I was little, that tells me to stop and take a breath.
'There's a lack of trying [to make music] and it's beautiful. We talk about it all the time. You have to be comfortable enough to not play the right thing, not sing the perfect whatever.
'You don't want to be tense around your loved ones and if we're creating together, all the layers can come down.'
The pop star has sparked concern for his well-being in recent months with a series of seemingly erratic public outings and social media posts, as well as admitting he's been struggling with his mental health amidst rumours about the state of his marriage.
It comes after Justin shared a dozen happy snaps of the duo goofing around together last week, with the Canadian hitmaker grinning and holding up two middle fingers to the camera while Eddie grabbed onto his shirt
He has increasingly been spotted out in public with Eddie, including giving him a cuddle as they left the Golden Globes after-party at Chateau Marmont together in January.
Hailey, his wife, did not attend the event.
As a teenager, Eddie performed at jazz clubs around Bondi, as one third of a Blues trio he formed with two classmates from Rose Bay Secondary.
In 2023, he was named Breakthrough Musician of the Year by GQ Australia and was spotted leaving the awards show arm-in-arm with another A-list collaborator, Willow Smith.
During his acceptance speech at Bondi Surf Pavilion, Eddie spoke about the 'full circle moment' of recording his first-ever song in the building when he was just 13.
'I had a pretty cute time working with him,' Willow said. The pair were then seen publicly displaying affection on Bronte Beach.
Eddie was previously in a relationship with American actress and dancer Maddie Ziegler between 2020 and 2023.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

My mini gap year in (probably) the most extraordinary place on Earth
My mini gap year in (probably) the most extraordinary place on Earth

Times

time26 minutes ago

  • Times

My mini gap year in (probably) the most extraordinary place on Earth

It's day four of the gap-year-in-one-week I'm sharing with my 18-year-old son, Rider, in Queensland and we're getting into our groove. Take two flights before lunch and you start feeling like blasé musicians on tour: 'Hello Brisbane, again! Oh hi, Hamilton Island — lookin' good!' We're in the southern hemisphere's largest island resort, 550 miles north of Brisbane, in the Whitsundays — the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It's hard to decide which Madonna banger best fits the bill: Into the Groove or La Isla Bonita: 'All of nature wild and free/ This is where I long to be…' We're staying at the Sundays, a stylish boutique hotel that has just been fully refurbished to the tune of £16.9 million and has been open again for precisely 24 hours. Our twin room, home for two nights, is a lovely airy space with a big balcony overlooking the glorious Catseye Beach, an even larger bathroom and a Balearic vibe, despite the fact that Ibiza and Hamilton Island are more than 10,000 miles apart. My 'on-tour' stresses start to melt away and though we've missed the hotel's lunch window we eat a couple of burgers over the road at the Hamilton Island Resort Centre, where Rider confronts his first chip-stealing flock of laughing kookaburras; like a cheeky bunch of seagulls, in drag. Fortified, we head off to collect a golf buggy — one of the only methods of transport on the car-free island — while kangaroos hop across our path. By the time we've done an island recce (it's gorgeous from every angle, a cross between The Prisoner-era Portmeirion and an animated Disney movie) the sun is slipping away. It's the perfect moment to arrive at One Tree Hill, on the island's northern tip, where buggies cluster nightly for chillaxed live music and sundowners, until a semi-acoustic cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall ('Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!') gives me and a similarly aged couple (on a mini-break from Melbourne, we've bonded while sharing a table) the collective giggles. So much so, indeed, that Rider escapes us to take sunset selfies for Snapchat, leaving the retro hits behind. Back at the hotel dinner is a wow. The chef Josh Niland is an Aussie superstar — the 'fish butcher' and his wife, Julie, run Saint Peter, a Sydney restaurant widely regarded by critics as one of the country's best, while his CV also includes a stint at the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's three-Michelin-starred restaurant. At the Sundays' Catseye Pool Club, Rider says Niland's tasting menu is 'basically the best thing, ever'. From the batter fried wild fish tacos to the crumbed white Pyrenees lamb cutlets and their accompanying sides (grilled beans and pecorino polenta with the lamb, fermented pineapple hot sauce with the tacos) every dish sings. It's a great evening, with another early night for an early start. We're getting used to these. • The ultimate guide to the Great Barrier Reef: everything you need to know At the time of writing, two months later, our fifth day now feels like a fever dream. I had known for weeks that we would be joining Cruise Whitsundays' 'outer reef day cruise' and that if the weather was optimal we'd also take a 15-minute helicopter ride over the heart-shaped coral cluster at Hardy Reef. I had also known for weeks that, after the flight, we would be snorkelling and discovering the reef up close. Yeah, I knew all of this in theory, however, it wasn't until we were halfway through the two-hour boat trip from Hamilton Island to the reef that I thought, 'Hang on — where precisely are we headed? What will we see when we arrive?!' The answer: Reefworld, a permanently moored pontoon 45 miles away from the Whitsundays. At this shimmering reef-side oasis, the weather is perfect for choppers and three soon appear on the horizon, landing on their own pontoons. I'm suddenly glad I haven't spent any time contemplating being in a helicopter above the Pacific, 45 miles from dry land, because once our Hamilton Island Air pilot, Luke, is swooping us over Heart Reef, breathtaking doesn't come close to describing being a human drone, observing the contrast between the endless expanse of ocean and the reef ecosystem directly below us. This high-definition ride is one of the greatest things I've experienced. I'm thrilled that Rider — 'co-piloting' in the chopper's front seat, next to Luke — has done this at just 18; doubly delighted to be sharing it with him. Yet soon after we put on 'stinger' suits, flippers and snorkels and launch ourselves off the pontoon and into the reef, that amazing helicopter ride is memory-holed. While it remains one of the most extraordinary things I've done, being underwater in the Great Barrier Reef turns out to be at the next level. We've swum a couple of hundred metres away from the pontoon, mesmerised, punctuating the silence with an occasional 'wow!', when Rider turns to me and says: 'This is as good a place as any, right?' • 10 amazing ways to see the Great Barrier Reef I agree, so we slip below the surface, back into our parallel underwater world teeming with brilliant fluorescent fish and glistening coral. Here, Rider deftly unscrews the lid of the small container we've brought with us — and will take away with us too — while behind my mask tears flow; crying underwater is yet another new experience. My eldest son, Jackson, was about to embark on his post-graduation gap year when he died in an accident in September 2023 and now, as we set a tiny amount of his ashes free at one of the most extraordinary places on earth, Jackson's gap afterlife is just beginning. Kathryn Flett is spending a month travelling in Australia. She was a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland ( The Sundays has B&B doubles from £430 ( • Kathryn Flett: Should I crash my son's gap year?• Kathryn Flett: Yes… I crashed my son's gap year. Here's what happened• Kathryn Flett: Me, my son and the gap year I crashed: what's working (and what's not) Read Kathryn's final column next week

Holly Valance splits from billionaire Nick Candy
Holly Valance splits from billionaire Nick Candy

BreakingNews.ie

time3 hours ago

  • BreakingNews.ie

Holly Valance splits from billionaire Nick Candy

Former singer and Neighbours actress Holly Valance and Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy have split and are heading for divorce after 13 years of marriage, it has been reported. Australian-born Valance, 42, and billionaire property developer Candy, 52, are said to have broken up in recent weeks, according to The Sun. Advertisement The couple, who have two daughters, met in 2009 and became engaged two years later before marrying in California in 2012 at a ceremony attended by 300 guests. Holly Valance and Nick Candy (Stefan Rousseau/PA) A family friend told the newspaper: 'This has been a very difficult period for both Nick and Holly, and they are keeping things private out of respect for their family. 'The joint parenting of their two amazing daughters remains their top priority. 'They've had to juggle a demanding lifestyle. Between family, public life, and Nick's intense work commitments, it's been a tough balance. Advertisement 'This is a family matter and they're doing their best to handle things thoughtfully. 'Privacy is obviously very important to them both, so they can focus on what's best for the family.' A spokesman for Valance said: 'This is a private matter, and there will be no comment. The privacy of all parties involved is respectfully requested' The couple are high-profile figures within Reform UK, and met Donald Trump with party leader Nigel Farage at the US president's Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022. Advertisement After her stint in the Australian soap Neighbours where she played Felicity 'Flick' Scully from 1999, Valance had a music career, including the UK number one hit single Kiss Kiss released in 2002. She also reached the semi-finals of Strictly Come Dancing in 2011.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review – a hypnotising arthouse game with an A-list cast
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review – a hypnotising arthouse game with an A-list cast

The Guardian

time4 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review – a hypnotising arthouse game with an A-list cast

What is Death Stranding 2 trying to say? It's a question you will ask yourself on many occasions during the second instalment of Hideo Kojima's hypnotising, mystifying, and provocatively slow-paced cargo management simulator series. First, because during the many long and uneventful treks across its supernatural vision of Mexico and Australia, you have all the headspace in the world to ponder its small details and decipher the perplexing things you just witnessed. And second, because the question so often reveals something profound. That it can stand up to such extended contemplation is a marker of the fine craftsmanship that went into this game. Nobody is scribbling down notes to uncover what Doom: The Dark Ages is getting at or poring over Marvel Rivals' cutscenes for clues, fantastic as those games are. It is rare for any game to invite this kind of scrutiny, let alone hold up to it. But Death Stranding 2 has the atmosphere and narrative delivery of arthouse cinema. It's light of touch in its storytelling but exhaustive in its gameplay systems, and the tension between the two makes it so compelling. At first you brave one for the other; then, over time, you savour both. For anyone who missed the first Death Stranding, yes, this really is the second in a series of games about moving cargo between waypoints, on foot or by vehicle; delivering packages of food, tech and luxury items, like a post-apocalyptic Amazon driver. A mysterious event fundamentally changed the world at the start of the first game, allowing the dead to return to the realm of the living as spectral entities known as Beached Things (BTs). When a BT kills a human, it creates a disastrous event called a 'voidout', a kind of supernatural nuclear bomb explosion that leaves behind nothing but a vast crater. With humanity fragmented and sequestered in underground bunkers, protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) was entrusted with connecting the remaining pockets of civilisation in the US to a global tech infrastructure called 'the chiral network', restoring hope for a better tomorrow. He managed it, too, making it across the entire continent with a sort of supernatural infant, Lou, carried in an artificial womb. As this sequel begins he is enjoying a secluded life in Mexico with Lou, now a toddler. And believe me, those are the scantest cliff notes possible. Death Stranding 2 begins with six solid minutes of cutscenes that attempt to convey the strange world of sci-fi and poetic metaphors that Kojima has constructed, and even that feels like a cursory summary. Decrypting the mysteries is half the fun here (the other half being the box-shifting) but even if you don't engage that deeply with the world, it follows its own kind of dreamlike logic and starts to make intuitive sense. It is not clear whether Death Stranding 2's Australian once looked like the one we know, for example, or whether it was always a patchwork of Icelandic tundra, snowcapped mountains and multicoloured desert. What matters is that it feels consistent. Meditative it may be, but this isn't a game about watching Sam enjoy retirement and fatherhood for 50 hours. He is inevitably called back into action, this time reconnecting the Mexican and Australian populations to the chiral network for an outfit called Drawbridge, a logistics company funded by an unknown benefactor and headed by returning character Fragile (Léa Seydoux). If that sounds a bit dry, what if I told you that Fragile wears a pair of long Greta Garbo gloves around her neck, which she can move like a second set of hands? A swashbuckling gang of assists Sam on his mission, following him around on the DHV Magellan, a ship with more A-listers on board than a Cannes red carpet. Seydoux, George Miller, Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna all give brilliant performances, as does veteran game actor Troy Baker as chief baddie Higgs. The major characters exist primarily as poetic devices and morbid metaphors: Rainy (Kutsuna) is an ostracised optimist who makes it rain whenever she goes outside; Tarman (Miller) lost a hand to supernatural tar, and can now use it to guide the ship through its currents; Heartman (Darren Jacobs) dies and is reborn every few minutes. By rights, they should all be simply too strange to invoke pathos, but there are rare moments when the allegory is dialled down and they interact in human and poignant ways. If you don't feel a lump in your throat watching Rainy and Tomorrow (Fanning) sing together, it's not just Deadman who is dead inside. Package delivery is, strangely, depicted to the highest of gameplay standards. It sounds boring, but you can't help get pulled in by the magnetic draw of these detailed systems. In the last game, combat felt like an afterthought, but there is more of it this time as missions bring you into conflict with both BTs and other humans, and it is supported by typically slick mechanics that make launching a grenade or snapping a neck feel equally gratifying. You can fabricate tools to take with you – ladders and climbing ropes for mountainous routes, assault rifles and grenades when a fight is likely. The pleasure is as much in the preparation as it is in the action; it feels good to impose some order on an otherwise chaotic and unknowable world. That's probably why we all baked so much banana bread during lockdown. Kojima had a draft for Death Stranding 2's story before the Covid-19 pandemic, but rewrote it from scratch after being locked down along with the rest of the world. You don't have to look too hard to see the influences – a population that is too scared to go outside, governments that promise to save you by putting an end to travel and physical contact, the profound loneliness of Sam's job as a porter travelling solo across barren landscapes. Fittingly, you can interact with other players, but only at a distance, sharing equipment, building structures and leaving holographic signs and likes for other players in their own games. This ends up being a biting piece of lockdown satire – as time goes by the world becomes clogged up with flickering icons, and as more structures appear you are confronted by constant 'like' symbols. It feels like the mind-numbing attention spam of social media, and there's no way this is an accident. The first game had the advantage of surprise. Death Stranding 2 does not. Much of what is good – and what is tedious – about this game was also true of the last, but at the same time it has refined each bizarre element. Combat feels punchier, the world map more hand-crafted, missions more varied. Asking you to do all of that schlepping about all over again in a whole new game should feel like a practical joke, but it is so mechanically rich and loaded with meaning, you just nod and don the backpack a second time. Of the many things Death Stranding 2 is trying to say, the message that comes to the fore is: you are never truly alone. Global disasters, big tech, even death itself – these things might abstract the way we connect to one another, but they can't sever the connection altogether. Not bad for a game about delivering boxes. Death Stranding 2 is released on 26 June, £69.99/US$69.99/A$124.95

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store