Scooter Braun opened up for the first time about how he struggled with suicidal ideation following public drama and a difficult divorce.
During a conversation about his mental health on the Monday, June 9, episode of Steven Bartlett‘s “Diary of a CEO” podcast, Braun, 43, began by speaking about The Hoffman Process. , “It is one week of no phone, no email and intense work on your early childhood to understand why you are the way you are and to give you tools to go out in the world and understand yourself,” he said. “The reason I went in October 2020 is because my marriage was falling apart.”
Braun recalled the world thinking he was “crushing it” because his clients, including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, were finding so much success.
“I had a suicidal thought for 20 minutes where I was like, ‘If my marriage is going to fall apart, I’m not gonna be with my kids all the time. I can’t control this. I’m not gonna be this perfect image that I’ve presented to the world. And if I can’t be this perfect image, I don’t want to be here,’” he recalled. “It went to a very dark place.”
Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun’s Bad Blood: A Complete Timeline
The record executive was able to identify his deteriorating mental health and sought help.
“That’s not me. I would never leave my kids. I don’t wanna leave anybody. Like what was that? The next morning a friend of mine called and I told him about that night before. He called me back with another friend and they said, you need to go to Hoffman [Institute Foundation],” Braun detailed. “They told me that they could get me in two weeks because there was a cancellation. That was the release of Ariana Grande‘s Dangerous Woman album.”
After speaking with Grande, 31, who offered to move her album release date, Braun stepped away from “the busiest week of the year” for him to prioritize his health.
“I’ve spent my whole life pursuing these things, doing this, choosing this, choosing that life and choosing the clients. I’m the top of my game yet I wanted to kill myself last night. Something has got to change. I chose to go to that place instead,” he continued. “The hard stuff actually came after I got out. I ended up going through a divorce. I ended up going through all this different stuff — but I never was depressed again.”
Braun added: “The most interesting thing that happened on the other side of it is six years ago I was the biggest manager and the perfect marriage and everything I touched turned to gold. Six years later I’m divorced, I don’t manage anymore and I couldn’t be happier.”
The music manager clarified that he still has difficult days, saying, “It doesn’t mean it doesn’t ebb and flow. But I get to be the dad I’ve always wanted to be and the friend I’ve always wanted to be. It doesn’t mean that things aren’t gonna be hard. I’m gonna suffer more things and go through them. But I’m in a place that I understand more. It’s like everything is a gift.”
Taylor Swift’s Fallout With Big Machine Records: Everything We Know
Braun further elaborated on the progress he made later on in the episode.
“I had the night before thought about just shutting it all off. It wasn’t even an idea that I wanted to die. I just wanted the noise in my head to go away. I wanted the failure, the disappointment and the fear [gone]. I was going to fail in my mind. I couldn’t control it,” he explained. “I’d always been able to navigate out of failure and head towards success. A pit stop. But I had left. What I found at Hoffman is that I had built this mask so big. I wanted to feel like me again. I didn’t realize how far away I’d gotten from building up this armor and building up the mask.”
Braun found success after he helped discovered Bieber, 31, in 2008. He then worked with other high-profile names in the music business including Grande, Kanye West, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Ozuna, Dan + Shay and the Kid Laroi. Braun retired from artist management in 2024.
In addition to being known for his work with Bieber and Grande, Braun famously made headlines for acquiring Taylor Swift‘s masters in 2019.
Swift, 35, subsequently announced her plans to reimagine her past tracks after Braun paid more than $300 million to acquire the Big Machine Label Group. She bought back the rights to her entire discography in late May.
“When I bought Big Machine Label Group, I thought I was going to work with all the artists there. I thought it was gonna be like an exciting thing. I knew Taylor [but] she and I had only met three times. One of the times it was years earlier, it was really a great engagement,” Braun claimed on Monday. “I had a feeling — this is where my arrogance came in — that she probably didn’t like me because I managed [Kanye and Justin]. But I thought that once this announcement happened, she would talk to me, see who I am and we would work together.”
Braun admitted he was thankful for the lessons he learned from their public rift.
Unexpected Celebrity Feuds We Never Saw Coming
“The biggest gift that I got from that was understanding that all the praise I had received up until that moment was not deserved. All the hate I got after that moment was not deserved because none of these people knew me. She didn’t know me. This person didn’t know me. This person who met me three times, they didn’t know me,” he continued. “I can show respect for all of them because I don’t know them. So I can love them where they’re at. But the gift of pain was awareness.”
Amid his drama was Swift, Braun’s marriage to Yael Cohen was coming to an end. (The former couple, who share three kids, were married from 2014 to 2022.)
“I was going through something very personal shortly after. I was going through the divorce and it just felt like one after another. But I look back and if those things didn’t happen, I really think they’re all gifts. Because when something’s fair, you don’t respect it,” he concluded. “When something happens to you that you feel is fair, you move on. You feel justified because you saw it coming. When something happens to you that feels deeply unfair and you can’t fix it, then you really gotta look at everything and realize the role you played in this. So I’m grateful.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
