Report: Diddy’s violent past goes back to his college days

Sean “Diddy” Combs

Amy Sussman/Getty Images for MRC

Amid a barrage of legal woes, a new in-depth report raises disturbing allegations that Sean “Diddy” Combs has a history of abuse, along with accusations from former friends, Bad Boy Records employees and artists claiming the scandal-plagued music mogul was a violent figure behind the scenes.

Rolling Stone published a startling report on Combs on Tuesday night. The magazine claimed they spoke to more than 50 people in his social and professional circles, covering his time in the music industry and his college years. The report, which was six months in the making, details Combs’ alleged history of using violence and intimidation, particularly against women, and provides graphic descriptions of a number of harrowing incidents.

Several sources said Rolling Stone that Combs showed signs of violence and controlling behavior during his time at Howard University. Some of Combs’ college peers describe one incident when a “belligerent” Combs began yelling at his girlfriend to come out outside Howard’s Harriet Tubman Quadrangle dorm. The student source says several female students in the dorm knew that Combs, then known by his nickname “Puff,” was allegedly attacking his girlfriend outside the building and began raising alarms in the dorm. “Puff is acting like crazy out here. He’s hitting her,” the female students said, according to the first witness.

A second Howard student who witnessed the alleged attack said Rolling Stone that Combs used what looked like 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 on the butt — like, really slapped her on the butt” and that the woman “was trying to defend herself a little bit. She was crying. And we told him, ‘Get off her.’ We were screaming for her.”

The woman who allegedly attacked Combs in Howard declined to comment, but Rolling Stone says that a third source also remembered the incident.

In another incident, Bad Boy co-founder and president Kirk Burrowes claimed he saw Combs attack a woman in the record label’s office in 1994. Burrowes, who was fired from Bad Boy in 1997, and another former employee claimed they had to separate Combs from the woman after hearing screams and the sound of shattering glass.

In another report, Bad Boy employee Felicia Newsome claims she once had to restrain Combs as he was about to “spank that girl’s ass” after a fight broke out between two women. “I grabbed him by the waist and said, ‘You need to calm down. This is not your fight,'” Newsome recalled.

The Rolling Stone The report claims Combs was a controlling person who wouldn’t let the women in his life move on after a relationship ended. Combs is accused of attacking late music executive Shakir Stewart at a wedding in Italy after Stewart began a relationship with Combs’ on-off partner Kim Porter. During the alleged incident, which occurred at music mogul LA Reid’s wedding in 2000, Combs allegedly sought out Stewart in his hotel room and attacked him. Stewart’s mother, Portia Labrie, as well as two of his close friends, said Combs broke a chair over Stewart’s head. “He left him bleeding on the floor of a hotel in Italy,” Labrie says. “He needed stitches and then (Combs) threatened him … ‘I’m going to kill you’ … That’s when I said, ‘You need to get out of this business. This man is crazy.'”

Combs’ legal troubles have been piling up since his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging sexual and physical abuse spanning nearly a decade. After settling with Cassie, Combs faced three more lawsuits from women accusing him of 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.

Although he reached a settlement with Cassie, Combs has denied assaulting her and has also denied the allegations in the other sexual assault lawsuits. But earlier this month, he came under renewed scrutiny after a 2016 surveillance video showing him violently attacking Cassie in a hotel was obtained and released by CNN.

Especially in the Rolling Stone Three of the women who have accused Combs of sexual assault in recent lawsuits have spoken publicly for the first time, according to the report, saying they came forward after learning about Combs’ alleged pattern of abuse in hopes of holding the mogul 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 go public “is not about the money. It’s about showing the world that this man who rose to ‘icon’ status is actually sick and has left so many victims (in the wake of his) years of unpunished, disgusting behavior.”

Rolling Stone The report notes that the magazine sent Combs a detailed list of questions about the new and pending allegations, but he did not specifically respond. “Mr. Combs cannot comment on closed litigation, will not comment on pending litigation, and cannot respond to every allegation the press picks up from any source, no matter how unreliable,” his attorney, Jonathan Davis, said in the article. “We are aware that the relevant authorities are conducting a thorough investigation and therefore trust that all important issues will be addressed in the relevant forum where the rules distinguish fact from fiction.”

The Hollywood Reporter has also contacted Combs’ lawyers.