THIS is how Sean “Diddy” Combs went from global rap mogul to disgraced convict as he faces 50 months behind bars.
The shamed star, 55, was yesterday found guilty on two prostitution charges after years hosting depraved drug-fuelled “freak-offs” and committing vile abuse.
Sean Combs ‘P. Diddy’ arrives for the 2018 Met Gala[/caption]
Sean Combs, Donald Trump and Melania Trump[/caption]
Leonardo DiCaprio pictured at one of Combs’s infamous parties[/caption]
He was also fined £370,000 ($500,000) – the maximum amount possible under the convictions.
Details of his vile abuse and druggy freak-off parties were revealed in court as the judge handed him his sentence.
Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and a woman named only as Jane during the trial, testified about their experience with the rapper’s violent abuse.
The disgraced star acknowledged the disturbing video of him beating Ventura in a hotel hallway and apologized to all victims of domestic violence.
But after a six-hour court hearing, in which Combs begged the judge for mercy, he was served a four-year sentence.
Addressing Combs before delivering his decision, Manhattan Judge Arun Subramanian said he abused his girlfriends “physically, emotionally and psychologically”.
So, how did the top A-list celeb, with a multi-million-dollar record company, get here?
PROMISING BEGINNING
Born Sean John Combs on November 4, 1969, in Harlem, he launched his career as an intern at Uptown records, where he eventually became talent director.
In 1993, he founded Bad Boy Records and signed The Notorious B.I.G. who released the global sensation Ready to Die two months later.
From here, Combs quickly ascended to the top of East Coast hip-hop.
The emerging music mogul later booked a number of stars and collaborated with the likes of Blige, Usher, Lil’ Kim, TLC, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men.
He was also a Grammy-winning rapper himself, debuting with the chart-topping single “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” and his album “No Way Out.”
Success multiplied as the brash hustler also ventured into Hollywood, reality television and fashion.
‘DRUGGED’ AND ‘FORCED’ SEX
In 2023, Ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura sued the three-time Grammy winner over allegations she was drugged and forced to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him for days at a time.
Lawyers for singer Cassie, 37, filed a bombshell 35-page lawsuit against the music mogul.
It included claims that he stomped on her and left her bleeding; raped her when she tried to leave him; trafficked her for sex; and went after a rival label boss with a gun.
CNN later aired video that shows Combs attacking and beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Two days later, Combs posts videos on social media apologizing for the assault.
In September that year, the rap artist is arrested at his Manhattan hotel.
A federal sex trafficking and racketeering indictment unsealed the next day accused him of using his business empire to coerce women into participating in sexual performances.
Combs denied the allegations and his attorney calls it an unjust prosecution of an imperfect person.
DRUG-FUELLED FREAK OFFS
Federal prosecutors released the indictment announcing Combs was charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The music sensation was arrested on after he was seen relaxing in Central Park in New York.
Actor Russell Brand and Combs attend the White Party hosted by the disgraced rapper[/caption]
Combs accompanied by attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Anthony Ricco[/caption]
That suit spurred a raft of other allegations made by alleged victims of the music mogul.
According to prosecutors, Combs threw wild parties he called “freak offs” where he would fly in sex workers for days of raucous sessions.
However, once at the party, workers would be coerced through money and intimidated into performing sick nonconsensual acts, the indictment claims.
After days of non-stop drug use and drinking, participants were often mailed IV bags to help recover from the revelry, the indictment claims.
RAP KING BEHIND BARS
Combs has already served about 13 months’ worth of time behind bars which will be subtracted off his total time served.
But Manhattan Judge Arun Subramanian also sentenced him to five years of supervised release once he gets out of prison.
Addressing Combs before delivering his decision, Subramanian said he abused his girlfriends “physically, emotionally and psychologically”.
The judge said: “You had the money and the power to keep it going.
“This was subjugation and it led to Ms Ventura and Jane to thoughts of ending their lives.”
During the remarks, Combs stood like a statue and did not move for a minute.
He then lifted his head up and stared ahead.
Speaking in the New York court today before he was sentenced, an emotional Combs said: “I have been humbled and broken to my core.
“I hate myself right now, I’ve been stripped down to nothing.”
Combs and Cassie celebrate their 2016 MTV Video Music Awards After Party at Pasquale Jones in 2016[/caption]
The disgraced rapper at one of his White Parties[/caption]
One of Diddy’s White Parties[/caption]
Combs with his mom seated in the back, attends a hearing in federal court in the Manhattan[/caption]
Timeline of major events in his life
- 1990: Combs, then a student at Howard University, gets his start in the music business with an internship at Uptown Records in New York.
- Dec. 28, 1991: Nine people die at a celebrity basketball game promoted by Combs and the rapper Heavy D when thousands of fans try to get into a gym at the City College of New York. A mayoral report lays part of the blame for the catastrophe on poor planning by Combs.
- 1992: Combs is one of the executive producers on Mary J. Blige’s debut album, What’s the 411?”
- 1993: After being fired by Uptown, Combs establishes his own label, Bad Boy, which quickly cuts a lucrative deal with Arista Records.
- 1994: Bad Boy releases The Notorious B.I.G.’s album Ready to Die.” Two months later, Tupac Shakur survives a shooting in New York and accuses Combs and Biggie of having prior knowledge of the attack, which they deny. Shakur is later killed in a 1996 shooting in Las Vegas.
- 1996: Combs is convicted of criminal mischief after he allegedly threatened a photographer with a gun.
- 1997: Biggie is killed in Los Angeles. Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, releases I’ll Be Missing You in honor of his dead star.
- 1998: Combs wins two Grammys, one for best rap album for his debut No Way Out and another for best rap performance by a duo or group for I’ll Be Missing You with Faith Evans. Combs’s Sean John fashion line is founded.
- April 16, 1999: Combs and his bodyguards are charged with attacking Interscope Records executive Steve Stoute in his New York office in a dispute over a music video. Combs is sentenced to an anger management course.
- Dec. 27, 1999: Combs is arrested on gun possession charges after he and his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, fled a shooting that wounded three people at a New York City nightclub. Some witnesses tell police Combs was among the people shooting in the club. He is later charged with offering his driver $50,000 to claim ownership of the handgun found in his car.
- March 17, 2001: Combs is acquitted of all charges related to the nightclub shooting. One of his rap protégés, Jamal Shyne Barrow, is convicted in the shooting and serves nearly nine years in prison. Two weeks after the trial, Combs announces he wants to be known as P. Diddy. (Barrow also later changed his name to Moses Barrow and became a parliamentarian in his native Belize).
- 2002: Combs becomes the producer and star of Making the Band, a talent search TV show.
- Feb. 1, 2004: Combs performs at the Super Bowl halftime show along with Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and others. A week later, Combs, Nelly and Murphy Lee win a Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group for Shake Ya Tailfeather.
- April 2004: Combs makes his Broadway acting debut in A Raisin in the Sun.
- 2005: Combs announces he is changing his stage name to Diddy, getting rid of the P.
- March 2008: Combs settles a lawsuit brought by a man who claims Combs punched him after a post-Oscar party outside a Hollywood hotel the previous year. In May, Combs is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 2015: Combs is arrested after a confrontation on the campus of UCLA, where one of his sons played football. Assault charges are later dropped.
- 2016: Combs launches a Harlem charter school, the Capital Preparatory School. Also that year, he announces he is donating $1 million to Howard University.
- 2017: Combs is named the top earner on Forbes’ list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities, which says he brought in $130 million in a single year.
- 2018: Kim Porter, Combs’s former girlfriend and the mother of three of his children, dies from pneumonia at age 47.
- 2022: Combs receives a lifetime honor at the BET Awards.
- Sept. 15, 2023: Combs releases The Love Album Off the Grid, his first solo studio project since 2006’s chart-topping Press Play.
- Nov. 16, 2023: R&B singer Cassie sues Combs, alleging that during their decade-plus as a couple, he subjected her to abuse, including beatings and rape. A day later, the lawsuit is settled under undisclosed terms. Combs denies the accusations.
- Nov. 23, 2023: Two more women accuse Combs of sexual abuse in lawsuits. Combs’s attorneys call the allegations false. Dozens of additional lawsuits follow by women and men who accuse Combs of rape, sexual assault and other attacks. Plaintiffs include singer Dawn Richard, a Making the Band contestant who alleged years of psychological and physical abuse. Combs denies all the allegations.
- March 25, 2024: Federal agents search Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida.
- May 17, 2024: CNN aired video that shows Combs attacking and beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016. Two days later, Combs posts videos on social media apologizing for the assault.
- Sept. 16, 2024: Combs is arrested at his Manhattan hotel. A federal sex trafficking and racketeering indictment unsealed the next day accuses him of using his business empire to coerce women into participating in sexual performances. Combs denies the allegations. His attorney calls it an unjust prosecution of an imperfect person.
- May 5, 2025: Jury selection begins for Combs’s trial.
- May 12, 2025: Testimony begins in Combs’s trial.
- June 30, 2025: Jury deliberations begin in Combs’s trial.
- July 2, 2025: The jury convicts Combs of two counts of a prostitution-related offence but acquits him of higher-level charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
- Oct. 3, 2025: A judge sentences Combs to four years and two months in prison.
