Taye Diggs has said that he was “blindsided” and felt “naive” after the allegations surrounding Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs came to light.
The Broadway star, 53, shared his thoughts about the rapper’s arrest on the Thursday, September 26 episode of podcast, “Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson.”
“I felt so naive when I heard all that stuff because I was… I don’t know where I was, but all of it blindsided me,” Diggs said.
Diggs added that on one hand he was glad the news was revealed but was simultaneously disappointed that Diddy, 54, hadn’t lived up to the standard he previously considered the music mogul to be at.
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“It’s kind of double-edged for me because on one side, I’m like, this is great for people to know that this happens,” Diggs explained. “We can think life is to be lived a certain way, we can think a person is a certain way and they can be the exact opposite and get used to that, you know?”
Diggs also acknowledged his disappointment after learning of the allegations about someone he once thought of as a role model.
“He was a hero to me. I loved how he… he didn’t come from much, he started out as a dancer. All the things that I wasn’t, growing up, he was,” Diggs said. “He had so much confidence and a certain arrogance that I loved and he made being Black cool. I came from a place where we had to ask everything and ‘I’m Black, so of course, I’m going to be treated like this’. I looked at him and he wore it like, as a badge, you know what I’m saying? I really put him on a pedestal and it was disappointing to see some of what happened. I couldn’t believe it. And I didn’t like that feeling.”
Diddy was arrested earlier this month on sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution charges. According to a 14-page indictment, which cited Diddy’s infamous parties as evidence, the rapper allegedly “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him” for decades. Diddy was also accused of using the acts to fulfill “his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct.”
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Diddy denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges before a judge denied his request for bail. Diddy was subsequently remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until his trial.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo told Us Weekly in a statement. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”
