While Diddy remains behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting his day in court, many of his alleged victims and those who knew him best throughout the rise and fall of Combs’ Bad Boy empire are speaking out.
Investigation Discovery’s The Fall of Diddy docuseries premieres on Discovery+ at 9 p.m. on Monday night (Jan. 27) with parts three and four of the chilling series airing at the same time on Tuesday (Jan. 28). The doc will also be available on Max.
The four-part series features testimony from former VIBE editor-in-chief Danyel Smith, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones (who has filed a lawsuit against Diddy), Kat Pasion, Danity Kane’s D. Woods, 1999 shooting victim Natania Reuben and Thalia Graves (who says Diddy raped her), as well as those who worked with the disgraced mogul like his personal chef, security, childhood friends and more.
A ton of ground is covered throughout the four-hour series, starting with Diddy’s relationship with his mother, the City College stampede, Bad Boy’s rise and glory years, the 1999 NYC nightclub shooting, his turbulent relationship with Cassie and repeated patterns of abuse with alleged victims speaking out.
“We did not realize the extent of the darkness,” says one of the interview subjects.
Combs was denied bail three times following his September 2024 arrest on counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. His trial is slated to start on May 5. Diddy pleaded not guilty to the charges and has continuously denied all of the allegations levied against him. He faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.
Billboard got an early look at the disturbing docuseries. Here are eight things we learned from The Fall of Diddy.
“There’s A Little R. Kelly in All of Us”
Kat Pasion met Diddy shortly after Kim Porter’s passing in 2018 and the two eventually began dating. She was initially apprehensive about meeting Combs, but wanted to comfort a mourning friend in need. They took a yacht trip to the Bahamas in early 2019 where Pasion was watching Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries when Diddy shockingly allegedly told her, “There’s a little R. Kelly in all of us.”
“We were in the Bahamas on a yacht and the R. Kelly documentary had come out,” she said. “He came in the room to watch a little bit. He’s walking out of the room and he says, ‘There’s a little R. Kelly in all of us.’ And he walks out the door. I remember being like, ‘What? There is not a little R. Kelly in all of us.’”
Danyel Smith Was Threatened Over 1997 VIBE Cover
Diddy graced the cover of VIBE in 1997 and he allegedly threatened the former VIBE Editor-in-Chief Danyel Smith that she’d end up “dead in a trunk” if she didn’t show him the cover before it went to print, which was against publication policy.
“I told him that I wouldn’t be making an exception, and he told me that, ‘He would see me dead in a trunk if I did not show it to him,’” she recalled. “I said to him, ‘You need to take that back.’ He said something to the effect he wasn’t taking s–t back.”
About 90 minutes to two hours later, Smith received a faxed apology from Diddy. “What I’ve only recently come to realize through members of the staff at that time was that [Diddy] had actually, in the days before, come up to the VIBE offices with two tough guys looking for me,” she explained.
Diddy’s Driver Says He Saw Combs With a Gun on Night of 1999 NYC Nightclub Shooting
Wardel Fenderson was Diddy’s personal driver in 1999, and this is the first time he told his recollection of the fateful night of the 1999 NYC club shooting on camera. “I happened at one point to glance over my shoulder and I noticed him holding a black handgun,” Fenderson said.
After scooping Diddy and co. from the club following the shooting, Fenderson claimed that Diddy ditched his handgun out the window.
When they were later all brought into NYPD custody, Fenderson says Diddy offered him $50,000 — along with his $300,000 diamond ring as collateral — to take ownership of the weapon. “I did not want to take the bribe, but the phrase on the street is ‘snitches get stitches,’” he said.
Fenderson eventually cooperated and testified that Combs had a gun during the trial. “I was recanting my statement and no longer going along with their scheme to take ownership of the gun,” he added.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Says He Never Got Paid for Producing ‘The Love Album’: ‘I’ll Eat Your Face Off’
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones worked extensively alongside Combs on Diddy’s The Love Album in 2023, but claims he was never paid a dime for producing at least six songs on the LP.
“He was asking me how much was I going to charge him for working on his album. Before I knew it, he was up in my face and he’s like, ‘Yo, you don’t charge me no money. I’m Puff Daddy, I’ll eat your face off,’” he recalled. “I never got paid as a producer for The Love Album still to this day… Puff making threats [because] that’s who he is — a bully in a suit.”
Jones accused Diddy of touching his anus and genitals inappropriately while also showering naked in front of him. “It felt uncomfortable and it still feels uncomfortable,” he said. “I did at some point raise this issue to one of the chiefs of staff and she would tell me, ‘Oh, that’s just his way of showing that he likes or loves you… Working with him, there was a lot of abuse that came with it.”
He also claimed that Diddy would send him and others to the club to bring him home “multiple choices of women.” Jones added: “More than often, we did spend a lot of our time going to the strip clubs to get sex workers to bring back to the house.”
Jones filed a sprawling lawsuit against Diddy in February 2024 claiming that he was sexually assaulted and drugged by Combs. He also accused Diddy of harassment, sex trafficking and various other forms of misconduct.
Domestic Violence at Howard University
An anonymous Howard University student recalled seeing Diddy whip another female student he was apparently dating with a belt, and beating on her in the courtyard outside the dorms. “We’re yelling, ‘Get off of her…’ He’s yelling back, ‘Mind your business.’ We’re yelling back, ‘Leave her the f–k alone.’… He pushes her back into the doorway of the dorm. We don’t know what’s going on in that space, we can’t see.”
Diddy studied at Howard U from 1987 to 1989. He was awarded with an honorary doctorate degree, which was rescinded in 2024.
Natania Reuben Maintains Diddy Shot Her
Natania Reuben was the victim of the 1999 nightclub shooting, and she maintains that Diddy was the one that shot her — and not Shyne, the rapper who was sentenced to a decade behind bars for first-degree assault, gun possession and reckless endangerment. Combs was acquitted of gun possession and Bribery charges.
“I see them both holding guns, and God said to me, ‘Be still, you’re about to get hit.’ I just see the muzzle flash and I grab my face because I instantly feel this hot torching flame on my face,” she said. “I was certain I was gonna be dead, because I didn’t think a human couldn’t lose that much blood and still be alive. I just knew my life was never gonna be the same again.”
Reuben later added: “I have nine bullet fragments that remain in my face and my head. [Diddy] took my peace of mind. He took my sense of safety.”
Thalia Graves Recalls Disturbing Rape Details at Hands of Diddy
Thalia Graves was dating a Bad Boy executive when Diddy called her to come to the studio one day in 2001 to discuss her partner who was “f—ing up at work.” Graves was picked up in an Escalade by Diddy and driven to the studio where she believes her drink was tampered with as she was drugged.
Her boyfriend was not there, but Diddy brought her to a lounge room she’d never been to and allegedly proceeded to rape her.
“I remember crying and the next thing I remember was I was slammed on a pool table. I was naked on the pool table and my hands were tied behind my back,” she said. “Puffy was standing by the bar and he was naked. There was a jar on the bar and he put on something on his privates it smelled like menthol… Puffy came up behind me and went straight in my anus to where I ended up throwing up on the pool table and screaming.”
Graves said Puffy returned to vaginally rape her and when it was over, she ran out the door “terrified.” “I just didn’t wanna die,” she said.
She also claims that Diddy filmed the gruesome crime and Puffy called her and said to “keep her effing mouth shut.”
Graves spoke out for the first time when filing a disturbing lawsuit with the Manhattan federal court accusing Diddy of brutally sexually assaulting her in September 2024.
Former Security Guard Seemingly Confirms Freak Offs
When Cassie originally filed her bombshell lawsuit in 2023, part of it included that Diddy allegedly forced her to participate in sexual “freak off” sessions.
Roger Bonds, who worked as security for Diddy from 2003 to 2012, said Combs would go to a hotel for weekends at a time, and there would be random guys coming in and out.
“I’ve seen questionable things, but I never knew exactly what was going on,” he said. “It’s been times where Cassie and Diddy would just go to the hotel for a weekend, and I would see guys get off the elevator.”
Bonds also confirmed that he took Cassie to the London Hotel in Los Angeles after she was the victim of an assault at the hands of Diddy. Cassie made the same claims in her lawsuit regarding being attacked by Diddy in the back of a car in Los Angeles in 2009.
