Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard sued Sean “Diddy” Combs shortly before his September 2024 arrest — and a brand new docuseries shows him reacting moments after he got the news.
“Dawn Richard just dropped a lawsuit on me. For $30 million,” Diddy, now 56, says in Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which premiered Tuesday, December 2.
Within the footage, Diddy is walking outside in Latest York City with members of his entourage. Moments after he mentions the suit, he snaps a photograph with a fan. When the fan leaves, he resumes discussing the lawsuit together with his team.
Later, in his hotel room, Diddy describes Richard’s accusations as “so fictitious and crazy,” adding, “I’m like, ‘What the f***?’”
Diddy goes on to slam Richard specifically in addition to other accusers who sued him within the lead-up to his arrest.
“They’re crashing out,” he says. “This girl that was in my group that was on my last album — you’re on my last album, now rapidly I’m this person, I’m this monster. F*** that, man. Gloves coming off.”
A title card explains that the footage was filmed by a videographer who Diddy hired to follow him shortly before his arrest. The filmmakers then “obtained this footage” after he was arrested and brought into custody.
Diddy was arrested on September 16, 2024, and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to the fees and denied all of the allegations against him.
Days earlier, Richard, 42, filed a lawsuit against Diddy accusing him of verbal abuse, assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Richard worked with him in Danity Kane and later in Diddy – Dirty Money alongside Kalenna Harper.
Diddy denied Richard’s allegations on the time in a press release via his lawyer Erica Wolff.
Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard shared her response to the Sean “Diddy” Combs verdict in a press release via her attorney Lisa Bloom. “Today’s split verdict is a disappointment, however the criminal charges are different than the civil claims we filed and have been fighting against Sean Combs,” Bloom told Us Weekly in a press release on Wednesday, […]
“Mr. Combs is shocked and dissatisfied by this lawsuit,” Wolff said. “In an try to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all within the hopes of attempting to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide along with her album release and press tour. If Ms. Richard had such a negative experience with Making the Band and Danity Kane, she wouldn’t have chosen to proceed working directly with Mr. Combs for Dirty Money, nor would she have returned for the Making the Band reboot in 2020 or agreed to be featured on The Love Album last 12 months. It’s unlucky that Ms. Richard has forged their 20-year friendship aside to attempt to get money from him, but Mr. Combs is confidently standing on truth and appears forward to proving that in court.”
Richard later testified against Diddy when his trial began in May, claiming that she witnessed him physically abusing Cassie, whom he dated on and off from 2007 to 2018. She also alleged that Harper, 43, witnessed the alleged abuse, but Harper maintained that she didn’t know what took place between Cassie, 39, and Diddy.
“I don’t want people to think I’m attempting to wear a bulletproof vest for Puff ’cause I’m not,” Harper says within the docuseries, which was executive produced by 50 Cent. “It’s similar to, I’m not a foul person and I wasn’t around that s***. I don’t f***ing know what they was doing — I don’t know.”
In July, a jury convicted Diddy on two counts of transportation but acquitted him of trafficking and racketeering. Three months later, Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced him to 50 months in prison, including time served. He was transferred to Latest Jersey’s FCI Fort Dix on October 30 after spending the 13 months since his arrest in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
Diddy slammed the docuseries in a press release shared with Us Weekly via his spokesperson on Monday, December 1.
“Netflix’s so-called ‘documentary’ is a shameful hit piece. Today’s GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release,” the statement read. “As Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos know, Mr. Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to inform his own story, in his own way. It’s fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work. Netflix is plainly eager to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’ life, without regard for truth, so as to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy. If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combs’s legal rights, it will not be ripping private footage out of context — including conversations together with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.”
Courtesy of Sara Rivers/Instagram Making the Band was once one among MTV’s hottest reality shows, but several former contestants have since leveled allegations against producer Sean “Diddy” Combs. The fact series premiered on ABC in 2000 before moving to MTV and promised to place a band together at the tip of every season. The […]
The statement continued, “It’s equally staggering that Netflix handed creative control to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson — a longtime adversary with a private vendetta who has spent an excessive amount of time slandering Mr. Combs. Beyond the legal issues, this can be a personal breach of trust. Mr. Combs has long respected Ted Sarandos and admired the legacy of Clarence Avant. For Netflix to present his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for many years appears like an unnecessary and deeply personal affront. At minimum, he expected fairness from people he respected.”
Director Alexandria Stapleton previously said she had acquired the footage legally.
“It got here to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the vital rights,” she claimed to Netflix’s Tudum last month. “We moved heaven and earth to maintain the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s all the time filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the many years.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is now streaming on Netflix.
Should you or someone you already know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). Should you or someone you already know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. Should you or someone you already know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.