The tides truly began to turn against Sean “Diddy” Combs last May, with the release of a surveillance video from 2016 that showed the hip-hop mogul s
The tides truly began to turn against Sean “Diddy” Combs last May, with the release of a surveillance video from 2016 that showed the hip-hop mogul savagely beating his then girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel. By this point, Combs had already settled with Ventura after she made multiple shocking allegations of abuse against him in a federal lawsuit, and both his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach had been raided by federal agents. But not even Combs’s public apology for his “inexcusable” behavior could undo the distress unleashed by that footage.
Flashes of the video resurface in The Fall of Diddy, an ID docuseries now streaming on Max and Discovery+ that delves into Diddy’s fall from grace as he awaits trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts. “Do you know what really, really, really bothers me about that video?” asks journalist Mara S. Campo, who once worked for Combs’s Revolt TV, in the series. “She was barefoot. Think of how panicked you have to be to leave a place without putting your shoes on.”
The Fall of Diddy poignantly captures visceral reactions to the recording, but doesn’t languish in its cruelty. “I know people who still haven’t watched the whole thing—who can’t,” says series codirector Yoruba Richen in an interview. She and her team, including editor David Mehlman, wanted “to show that brutality so people could get a taste and understanding of it, but also try not to retraumatize people.” Adds executive producer Mary Robertson, who’s also on the Zoom along with ID executive Jason Sarlanis and Fall of Diddy codirector Emma Schwartz, “The more violent or upsetting the source material is, the more we feel an obligation to meet it with a certain sobriety in the editing room.”
Just as Ventura’s lawsuit served as a catalyst for other survivors to come forward—as well as the eventual federal indictment of Diddy—the footage of her assault is a stark reminder of the secret reality experienced by millions of people. “Domestic violence thrives in the shadows, and shining a light on those moments are what helps others know to get out,” says Sarlanis.
Robertson, Schwartz, and Sarlanis had previously collaborated on ID’s Emmy-nominated docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. The team had been circling the Combs story for months before they realized that Ventura’s lawsuit marked “a moment where more and more people were going to be potentially open to sharing stories that they’d held so tightly,” Schwartz tells Vanity Fair.
“That’s part of why we made the unusual decision to announce this project so early in its gestation,” adds Sarlanis, “so that we could really plant that flag and make sure that numerous people understood this would be a safe space. And to do it with the same team that had done Quiet on Set, that sent a message very clearly to survivors, that we will support you through this process.”
Several figures in the Diddyverse, including Danity Kane member D. Woods, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, Combs’s former personal chef Jourdan Cha’Taun, and his onetime bodyguard Roger Bonds, paint a picture of the darkness within Diddy’s orbit. Kat Pasion, who dated Combs on-and-off after his split from Ventura, alleges in the series that he assaulted her as well, and that he once told her, “There’s a little bit of R. Kelly in all of us.”
Diddy’s legal team has released a statement in response to the documentary’s allegations: “Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court he will prevail: that the accusations against Mr. Combs are pure fiction.” A legal representative for Combs did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment by press time.
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