Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard sued Sean “Diddy” Combs shortly before his September 2024 arrest — and a 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.
In the footage, Diddy is walking outside in New York City with members of his entourage. Moments after he mentions the suit, he snaps a photo with a fan. When the fan leaves, he resumes discussing the lawsuit 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***?’”
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Diddy goes on to slam Richard specifically as well as other accusers who sued him in 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 all of a sudden 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 taken into custody.
Diddy was arrested on September 16, 2024, and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied all 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 at the time in a statement via his lawyer Erica Wolff.
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“Mr. Combs is shocked and disappointed by this lawsuit,” Wolff said. “In an attempt to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour. If Ms. Richard had such a negative experience with Making the Band and Danity Kane, she would not have chosen to continue 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 year. It’s unfortunate that Ms. Richard has cast their 20-year friendship aside to try and get money from him, but Mr. Combs is confidently standing on truth and looks 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 off and on 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 trying to wear a bulletproof vest for Puff ’cause I’m not,” Harper says in the docuseries, which was executive produced by 50 Cent. “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.”
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 New 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 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.
