Justin Bieber James Zadroga
Sources tell us that Tyler Ann Zadroga, the 10-year-old daughter of 9/11 Health and Compensation Act namesake James Zadroga, is still walking on air after the perfectly coiffed pop star took time to meet her before a “Today” show appearance last month. She also got VIP access to the pre-Thanksgiving concert he gave on the morning program.
“He made her day,” says Tyler Ann’s grandmother Linda Zadroga. She and her husband, Joseph Zadroga, have been caring for the orphaned girl since her father, a decorated NYPD detective and 9/11 first responder, died in 2006.
Tyler Ann has long idolized Bieber, and Linda says that the night before his Nov. 4 appearance on “Today,” a “good friend” of the hero cop called the grandmother to tell her Bieber would be on the show and how Tyler Ann could meet him.
Linda says her husband drove their granddaughter from their home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., to the “Today” show’s Rockefeller Plaza studio. Tyler Ann didn’t know she was en route to meet her idol.
“She had no idea she was going to see him. I told her she had to go to a news conference,” laughs Linda.
“It was my surprise to her,” she says, explaining that Tyler Ann had turned 10 years old Nov. 1. Meeting Bieber would be a late, great birthday present.
On the Nov. 4 “Today” appearance, Bieber made his first public denial of Mariah Yeater’s allegations that he’d fathered her child. But despite the controversy, he still took time to greet fans in the studio audience.
Tyler Ann was in the right place at the right time.
Linda says the meeting was brief, probably no longer than a minute, but “thrilled” her granddaughter. “He said, ‘Hey, little one!” and took pictures with her. Bieber also autographed her poster of the pop star.
Linda says she doesn’t know if Bieber knew he was meeting the daughter of the cop whose name graces the Zadroga Act. “They didn’t really talk that much, and she doesn’t really bring it up that much,” she says. (Bieber’s rep did not respond to our request for comment.)
When Bieber returned to “Today” to perform a pre-Thanksgiving concert on Nov. 23, Tyler Ann and her grandfather saw the show from the VIP section. Once again, Linda says her granddaughter was “thrilled” by the experience, but her husband was not. "On the way back, he called from the car to say that he could still hear all the young girls screaming in his ears."
Since Tyler Ann got her double-dose of Bieber, Linda says “I’ve got Justin Bieber’s Christmas album” [“Under the Mistletoe”] playing all over the house.”
“We’re all Biebered out,” laughs Linda, who adds that there’s even a sign on her granddaughter’s bedroom door that reads, “Mrs. Bieber.”
“I guess I was like that with Elvis,” Linda says. “But I never got to see him.”
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