Sean “Diddy” Combs
Amy Sussman/Getty Images for MRC
Amid a storm of legal troubles, an in-depth new report has raised disturbing allegations of historical abuse against Sean “Diddy” Combs, as well as allegations from former friends, Bad Boy Records employees and artists claiming the scandal-plagued music mogul was a violent character. In the wings.
rolling stone published an explosive report on Combs on Tuesday evening, with the magazine claiming to have spoken to more than 50 people in his social and professional orbit, covering his time in the music industry and dating back to his college days. The report, six months in the making, details that Combs has an alleged history of using violence and intimidation, particularly against women, and provides graphic descriptions of a series of harrowing incidents.
Several sources have said rolling stone that Combs showed flashes of violent and controlling behavior during his time at Howard University. In one incident, some of Combs’ college contemporaries describe how, outside Howard’s Harriet Tubman Quadrangle dorm, a “belligerent” Combs began yelling for his girlfriend to come out. The student source claims that several female students in the dorm knew that Combs, then known by his nickname “Puff,” allegedly attacked his girlfriend outside the building and began raising the alarm in the dorm. “Puff is out here acting crazy. He beats her,” the comrades said, according to the first witness.
A sophomore Howard student who witnessed the alleged attack said rolling stone that Combs used what appeared to be a belt to hit the woman “all over.” The second witness said Combs seemed “super angry” and was “screaming at the top of his lungs.” The witness said Combs “slapped her butt – like she really whipped her butt” and that the woman “was trying to fight back a little bit.” She cried. And we said to him: “Let her go”. We were screaming for her.
The woman Combs allegedly attacked at Howard declined to comment, but rolling stone says a third source also recalled the incident.
In another incident, Bad Boy co-founder and president Kirk Burrowes claims he saw Combs attack a woman in the label’s office in 1994. Burrowes, who was fired from Bad Boy in 1997, and another ex -employee say they had to separate Combs from the woman after hearing screams and the sound of breaking glass.
In a separate account, Bad Boy employee Felicia Newsome claims she had to restrain Combs as he was about to “beat that girl’s ass” after a fight broke out between two women. “I hold him by the waist and tell him, ‘You need to calm down.’ This is not your fight,” Newsome recalled.
THE rolling stone The report alleges that Combs was a controlling figure, unwilling to let the women in his life move on after a relationship ended. Combs is accused of assaulting the late music executive Shakir Stewart at a wedding in Italy, after Stewart began a relationship with Combs’ on-and-off partner, Kim Porter. In the alleged incident, which occurred in 2000 at the wedding of music mogul LA Reid, Combs is accused of searching for Stewart in his hotel room and assaulting him. Stewart’s mother, Portia Labrie, along with two of her close friends, said Combs broke a chair over Stewart’s head. “He left him bleeding on the floor of a hotel in Italy,” Labrie said. “He had to get stitches and then (Combs) threatened him… ‘I’m going to kill you’… That’s when I said, ‘You need to get out of this.’ This man is crazy.’”
Since his former girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging sexual and physical abuse spanning nearly a decade, Combs’ legal problems have continued to worsen. After settling his lawsuit with Cassie, Combs faced three more lawsuits from women alleging sexual assault. In March, Combs’ homes in Los Angeles, New York and Miami were raided by federal agents as part of a sex trafficking investigation.
Also on Wednesday, CNN and the Los Angeles Times reported that federal investigators are preparing grand jury subpoenas for witnesses to testify in the sex trafficking investigation. This latest report notes that little is known about the federal investigation, including the identities of the alleged victims. Combs previously called the investigation “nothing more than a witch hunt” through his attorney. (The Hollywood Reporter contacted Combs’ representatives.)
Despite settling the lawsuit with Cassie, Combs denied assaulting her and also denied the allegations in the other sexual assault lawsuits. But he came under increased scrutiny earlier this month after a 2016 surveillance video showing him violently assaulting Cassie at a hotel was obtained and published by CNN.
Particularly in the rolling stone report, three of the women who accused Combs of sexual assault in recent trials spoke publicly for the first time and revealed that once they learned of Combs’ abuse allegations, they came forward in hopes of holding the tycoon accountable for his actions. . Joi Dickerson-Neal, Crystal McKinney and an anonymous “Jane Doe” spoke about their individual experiences.
Dickerson-Neal, who sued Combs for sexual assault in November 2023, said her decision to come forward “is not about money. “It’s about making sure the world understands that this man who has become an ‘icon’ is actually sick and that he has left so many victims because of his disgusting behavior over the years.”
rolling stone notes in the report that the magazine sent Combs a detailed list of questions about the new and pending allegations, but that he did not specifically respond to them. “Mr. Combs cannot comment on settled litigation, will not comment on ongoing litigation, and cannot respond to all allegations reported in the press, regardless of their source, no matter how unreliable,” his statement said. lawyer, Jonathan Davis, in the article. “We are aware that the relevant authorities are conducting a thorough investigation and are therefore confident that all important issues will be addressed in the appropriate forum, where the rules separate fact from fiction.”
THR also contacted Combs’ lawyers.
May 29, 9:35 a.m. Updated to include reports of possible grand jury subpoenas.