Kalenna Harper denied some of the claims in her former bandmate Dawn Richard’s lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, but the situation wasn’t as black and white as it may have seemed.
Harper, 43, opened up about her relationship with Diddy, 56, and Richard, 42, in the new Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which premiered Tuesday, December 2. While she acknowledged that Diddy could be an “a**hole,” she stood by her assertion that she didn’t witness everything that Richard claimed she did. Previously unseen footage in the series also shows Diddy on the phone with Harper asking her to make a statement on his behalf.
“I never had a problem with this girl,” Diddy said of Richard while speaking to Harper. “I’m asking for a brother’s favor of life. A statement, something. Whatever statement [you can give].”
Richard, who worked with the disgraced mogul in Danity Kane before joining him and Harper in Diddy – Dirty Money, filed a lawsuit against him in September 2024 accusing him of sexual assault. Diddy denied her claims, and the suit is still pending.
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Days later, Diddy was arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty and denied all the allegations against him. In July, Diddy was found guilty on two counts of transportation but acquitted of racketeering and trafficking.
In her lawsuit, Richard claimed that Harper was present during incidents where Diddy physically assaulted Cassie, who he dated off and on from 2007 to 2018. Harper then released a statement via social media noting that Richard mentioned her “33 times” in her court filing.
“While I fully respect Dawn’s right to recount her experiences, l want to emphasize that her account reflects her personal perspective and should not be interpreted as a universal truth applicable to everyone involved,” Harper wrote via her Instagram Story in September 2024. “It’s important to understand that while I was present in some of the same professional settings mentioned, many of the allegations and incidents described in this suit are not representative of my experiences, and some do not align with my own truth.”
In the docuseries, which 50 Cent executive produced, Harper noted that she was dealing with her own issues when Richard filed her suit. When Diddy called her to ask for a statement, she had recently asked him for help with a child custody dispute. According to Harper, however, Diddy declined to help her.
“The only person I could call in the beginning was Puff. Just trying to get help,” she recalled, noting that she asked for a loan of $5,000. “And at the time, he was like, ‘I can’t help because I’m doing something else.’”
When Diddy later came to Harper and asked her to make a statement, she said she reminded him that he’d said no to helping her earlier.
“I said, ‘You know that’s f***ed up, because I needed you, my n****,” she told the camera. “So, for me, it was like, ‘This is a prime opportunity to tell him I know you got that going on, but I got this going on — I want my kids. I don’t know why Dawn is doing this, but I have to talk to my husband because anything I say can f*** around and I could not get my kids back.’”
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She added, “I was like, ‘Look, y’all can’t call me because you’re scared to go to jail and rush me to say anything. I need time to think about it.’ Like, what am I gonna say?”
Richard filed her lawsuit on September 10, 2024, and Harper issued her statement on September 13. Speaking about it now, Harper got emotional while reiterating that she didn’t see what Richard claimed she did.
“I don’t want people to think I’m trying to wear a bulletproof vest for Puff, ’cause I’m not,” she told the camera. “It’s just like, I’m not a bad person and I wasn’t around that s***. I don’t f***ing know what they was doing — I don’t know.”
After Diddy’s partial conviction, he was sentenced to 50 months in prison, or just over four years, including time served. He reported to FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey on October 30 after his transfer from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where had been incarcerated since his September 2024 arrest.
Diddy slammed the docuseries in a statement 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 tell his own story, in his own way. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work. Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’ life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy. If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combs’s legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context — including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.”
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The statement continued, “It is equally staggering that Netflix handed creative control to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson — a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs. Beyond the legal issues, this is a personal breach of trust. Mr. Combs has long respected Ted Sarandos and admired the legacy of Clarence Avant. For Netflix to give his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for decades feels 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 came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” she claimed to Netflix’s Tudum last month. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is now streaming on Netflix.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
