Topline
Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs appears to have deleted all of his Instagram posts Thursday, one month after using the platform to apologize after a surveillance video showed him beating and dragging his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, known professionally as “Cassie,” in 2016.
Sean "Diddy" Combs is seen in London on Nov. 10, 2023.
Key Facts
The 54-year-old Combs has almost 20 million followers on Instagram, but all pictures and videos from his account disappeared Thursday.
The musician and business mogul has been in the spotlight for the last several months after a series of claims by several women that included sexual assault, abuse, rape and human trafficking, and a documentary is in the works about the allegations against him.
Last month, Combs publicly apologized after CNN published a surveillance video from March of 2016 that shows Combs shoving, kicking and grabbing the woman, who later sued him for abuse before settling her lawsuit the next day.
He posted a short video to Instagram where he called his behavior "disgusting" and said he was "truly sorry."
Combs has been hit with several lawsuits since November, including one by producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones alleging he regularly hosted “sex-trafficking parties” with underage women and illegal drugs, and his homes homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents in March.
Combs has so far denied all allegations against him.
Representatives for Combs did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment Thursday morning.
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Key Background
Ventura first filed her $30 million lawsuit against Combs in November, alleging he subjected her to a years-long abusive relationship. Combs denied the allegations and his attorney accused Ventura of "seeking a payday.” The two settled the lawsuit the next day and Combs’ lawyer said the settlement was "in no way an admission of wrongdoing." It wasn’t until CNN published the 2016 surveillance video that Combs publicly addressed the allegations. Days after Ventura filed her suit, an unnamed plaintiff accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her and a friend in the early 1990s and another woman, Joie Dickerson-Neal, said she was drugged and assaulted in 1991. She alleged the assault was secretly recorded. In December, another lawsuit was filed accusing Combs of participating in the gang rape of a woman in 2003 and model Crystal McKinney in May said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs that same year. In February, Jones filed his bombshell lawsuit detailing what he called "sex-trafficking parties" and accusing record label executives of looking the other way in exchange for business benefits and connections. Jones also said he was harassed by Combs and forced to engage in relations with sex workers the musician hired.
Tangent
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who has had a long-running feud with Combs, recently announced his production company would make a documentary project about the allegations against Diddy for Netflix. G-Unit Film & Television will produce the project. Jackson first teased the project on X last year by posting a video of former rapper Mark Curry talking about partying in clubs and saying Combs would spike bottles of champagne with “something to make the girls real, real slippery.”
What To Watch For
Federal investigators may soon have Combs’ accusers testify before a grand jury, sources told CNN in May. Testifying before a grand jury indicates that prosecutors are looking to charge or indict someone, but no charges have been filed yet.
