‘Diddy’ claims Netflix used ‘stolen’ footage in new documentary
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is pushing back on Netflix and 50 Cent, saying that the documentary about him uses footage that was “never authorized for release.”
unbranded – Entertainment
Janice Combs is speaking out against the “lies” in a new Netflix documentary about her son, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In a statement provided to USA TODAY, the rap mogul’s mother slammed the recently released Netflix documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” which was produced by 50 Cent. She alleged the four-episode series includes “inaccuracies regarding my son Sean’s upbringing and family life” that were “intentionally done to mislead viewers and further harm our reputation.”
“In the documentary, I am portrayed as an abusive parent,” she said. “This is untrue. As I have stated previously, I was a single mother, raising my son, I held three and even four jobs in an attempt to provide a comfortable upbringing and quality education for my child. I raised Sean with love and hard work, not abuse.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Netflix for comment.
The first episode of “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” which debuted Dec. 2, alleged that Combs received “beatings” at the hands of his mother when he was growing up.
“She held back nothing,” Combs’ childhood friend Tim Patterson said in the documentary. “His beatings made me scared. Right? I got beatings, now. But when he got his beatings, it wasn’t no … it wasn’t a joking thing.”
Text on screen in the episode states that Janice Combs “was contacted for comment regarding allegations that she physically harmed Sean Combs” but did not respond to the request.
In her statement, Janice Combs said, “The statement made by Mr. Tim Patterson about Sean’s life regarding my relationship with my son is not truthful and salacious to promote the series. To the contrary, I loved and nurtured Sean. My memories of Sean growing up are one of a respectful and a diligent child and teenager. Sean has always been an industrious, goal oriented, over achiever.”
She also took issue with a claim that her son slapped her after she questioned him about the deadly stampede at his 1991 charity basketball game in New York.
“I saw Janice question Sean,” Kirk Burrowes, co-founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, said in the first episode. “He’s going into this music business thing, he just left school, and now, this extreme tragedy has occurred. She’s like, ‘Did he make the right decision?’ And I saw him put his hands on her, call her a b—-, and slapped her.”
In her statement, Janice Combs denied this claim. “The allegations stated by Mr. Kirk Burrows that my son slapped me while we were conversing after the tragic City College events on December 28, 1991, are inaccurate and patently false,” she said. “That was a very sad day for all of us. For him to use this tragedy and incorporate fake narratives to further his prior failed and current attempt to gain what was never his, Bad Boy Records is wrong, outrageous and past offensive.”
She added, “Sean has been a dutiful son always ensuring that I was cared for and vigilantly managing my medical care, as well as providing financial support. I am requesting that these distortions, falsehoods and misleading statements be publicly retracted.”
Deadline first reported on Janice Combs’ statement.
Combs’ team previously slammed the Netflix documentary as a “shameful hit piece.”
“Many of the people featured have longstanding personal grievances, financial motives, or credibility issues that have been documented for years,” Combs spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said. “Several of these stories have already been addressed in court filings, and others were never raised in any legal forum because they’re simply not true. The project was built around a one-sided narrative led by a publicly admitted adversary, and it repeats allegations without context, evidence, or verification.”
Combs is currently incarcerated in New York after he was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution in a federal trial earlier this year.
