The Fall of Diddy

Back in 2010, it was Grammy weekend,

Here we go.

And we were doing a photo shoot with Cas during the day.

Puff and Cassie were dating.

There was a party.

Diddy, I love you, Diddy!

And she was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The Beverly Hills Hotel is like a one bedroom suite.

I fall asleep on the couch because I don't go out.

And he storms in, "Where the is she?"

I like, wake up all of a sudden

like a-- like what the? Who? Who let--

"Who are you talking about?"

And then they go into the room.

Shuts the door.

All I hear is, "Get the out of here.

Get the out of here."

He's like, on a rage.

He's being Puff.

And at this point

I'm just thinking of her safety.

And so I'm packing her stuff up.

Once he leaves, I see the aftermath on Cassie.

She shows knots on her head, bruised eye, busted lip.

It was horrific.

And so all I can think of was,

"We need to get back to my house.

You need to get the out of here."

We can't call the police. We can't go to the hospital.

We're scared of Puff.

We're always scared of him.

If we call the police what would happen?

He's a very powerful person in the business,

and he can do things that will to make you go away.

And many people are afraid of him 'til this day.

So what were we supposed to do?

We just had to, like, fix whatever was happening at that moment.

And that's kind of like how the business is.

I called my friend who's a doctor,

and I'm like, "You have to take care of Cas

'cause this is not okay."

You have to be a witness to this

because we can't call anyone.

But I felt like this has happened before

because she was so nonchalant about it.

Cassie and I never spoke about that incident after.

It's like family business.

We just don't talk about it.

What I witnessed was in 2010s,

and then in 2024, I watched the CNN video

and I was completely triggered

because I did not know

that this was going on for all these years.

Tonight, music mogul Sean Diddy Combs...

Sean Diddy Combs...

Sean Diddy Combs facing a slew of allegations,

including rape and sex trafficking,

in a stunning new civil lawsuit

filed by his longtime partner, singer Cassie.

Sean Diddy Combs is now the subject

of a federal criminal investigation.

FBI agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

Sean Diddy Combs,

has been arrested after a grand jury

indicted the music mogul.

Cassie, coming forward was the tipping point.

Several new accusers coming forward

against Sean Diddy Combs.

Very serious allegations,

rape, physical abuse and sex trafficking.

He was very good at standing in the limelight

without us actually taking a look deeper

and seeing who he is and what he is about.

Thing about hip hop, it's not just the music, it's a lifestyle.

Combs has built an empire.

There's his Sean John's fashion line,

his Ciroc vodka and the TV network he founded.

He didn't change to adapt to the world.

He changed the world to adapt to him.

Here he is a shining example

of what he likes to term black excellence.

Meanwhile, there's all this violence

and trauma happening in the background.

I realized I wasn't the only one.

I have a one of one story that no one else has.

That reckoning, it's coming.

Everybody is demanding to know.

How far did this go?

Time is up.

Sean "Puffy" Combs' power

has led to one of the most successful careers

in the history of American pop.

And it has led to some

really, really, really awful other things.

I've been knowing Combs for just about

the entirety of my career

as a journalist and as an editor.

I was the first woman editor in chief of Vibe magazine.

A large reason for me sharing my story

with everyone today,

It's because it's my duty.

And I'm also sharing it because of my unique position

in music history.

This is where I'm supposed to be.

It was very difficult

to work in the music media,

without having to deal with

or work with or hang out with

or negotiate with Sean "Puffy" Combs, was impossible.

The first time I had a real conversation with him

was a cover shoot for a vibe.

And that would have been right around September 1997.

It was to be the December-January

double issue of Vibe magazine.

Everybody was at the photo shoot,

a bunch of people from Vibe,

a bunch of people from the Bad Boy universe.

The idea was to get Mr. Combs

into some angel wings.

After the shoot,

Mr. Combs wanted to see the covers

before they were published.

It was policy for us not to show covers

to anyone before they were published.

He called me at my office.

I told him again,

We don't show the covers, we don't share the story.

I told him that I wouldn't be making an exception.

And he said that he would see me dead in the trunk

if I did not show it to him.

I said to him, "You need to take that back."

And he said something to the effect

because, you know, he wasn't taking shit back.

So then I said, I'm calling my attorney.

And my attorney called him to say that

if he didn't immediately fax over an apology,

My attorney was going to reach out to law enforcement.

And I think it took about 90 minutes to two hours

and I received that faxed apology.

What I've only recently come to realize

through members of the staff.

At that time was that he had, actually,

in the days before come up to the Vibe offices,

with two tough guys looking for me.

In order for my safety

and in order for the magazine pages to remain intact,

I was shuttled from office to office

until the coast was clear.

And waited outside.

Standing on the corner,

with the proofs,

the pages of the magazine

that were being prepared to go to print.

And then my managing editor came down

and got the pages from me

and put me in a cab to Brooklyn.

But the thing is,

I'm sitting right here right now.

I have no memory of any of that happening.

When our research chief

was telling me this story.

I was just like--

literally like...

I like-- I don't remember I was telling her.

And she said, "Of course you don't.

You blocked it out. You were terrified."

Because I don't remember it right now.

It's hard to look back.

I continued to work with him.

I continued to be cordial with him

to be invited to parties and go.

Sometimes it's very hard not to feel complicit.

I wish that thing's were different.

Is he an angel? Is he a devil?

It's a question that I've had

since we put him on the cover, in the wings.

I didn't know, but we might know now.

And you hate to see it.

As a reporter, Danyel's story really resonated with me.

What's really unusual

is the extent that Diddy went to.

He was determined to try to bully her,

and this was relatively early in his career.

And so it definitely appears

that Diddy continued to get more brazen

We now know behind the curtain

there were demons.

But you can't escape your demons that easily.

When I think of Puffy, I think of New York.

Puffy is the Horatio Alger,

you know, up from nothing to something.

The rags to riches story.

Diddy was born in Harlem

to his mother, Janice, and his father, Melvin.

Pump's mother, Janice Combs Baby,

could dance, could dress sharp as a attack.

Fly, hustler, go get it, ambitious.

I think of her as the queen of that energy.

Unfortunately, his father, Melvin, passed.

Sean didn't have any memories of Melvin.