Diddy's A-list friends who stayed silent after shock verdict: Jay-Z, Beyonce, Oprah and more have lips sealed

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

Sean ' Diddy ' Combs' trial finally reached a verdict on Wednesday after jurors initially deadlocked on four of five charges the day before.
After being instructed to continue deliberating, the jury returned Wednesday with a split verdict in which the music mogul was shockingly acquitted of the most serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but found guilty on two counts of less-serious transportation to engage in prostitution.
Now, even as the 55-year-old rapper remains behind bars on a judge's order at least until an expedited sentencing hearing on July 8, many of his celebrity friends continue to remain silent about the charges and numerous accusations made against him, all of which he has strongly denied.
Throughout his decades-long career, the rapper-turned-businessman cultivated an impressive roster of high-powered friends in the entertainment industry.
While some of his A-list pals, including Justin Bieber, have publicly distanced themselves from Diddy, others — like Jay-Z and Beyoncé — have been drawn into his legal drama in recent months, even as he adamantly denies the charges against him.
Now, DailyMail.com takes a look at Diddy's celebrity friends who have gone silent during his trial.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé
At one time, Diddy and Jay-Z were seemingly inseparable and regularly posed for photos together at major events.
Diddy and Jay's artistic collaborations go back to 1997, when both artists traded guest verses on each other's albums.
Jay rapped a verse on Diddy's song Do You Like It, Do You Want It, while the future mogul was featured on Jay's sophomore album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.
Jay-Z later began dating Beyoncé in 2001, and in 2003 Diddy teamed up with her for a guest verse on her single Summertime.
Jay-Z and Diddy bonded over philanthropy, and in 2005 they joined forces to make a $1 million donation to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, with the two appearing together on television to present the donation on live television.
Since then, the two rappers have been seen enjoying each other's company over the years.
Their most recent public appearance together appears to have been at the 2022 BET Awards, at which Jay-Z sang Diddy's praises in a video tribute piece.
But he and his wife Beyoncé — who worked with Diddy on her song Summertime — kept silent about accusations and charges against Diddy. After Jay-Z was accused of rape with Diddy in a lawsuit, he strongly denied the allegations. The suit was later withdrawn; Will Smith, Jay-Z, Ashton Kutcher and Diddy seen in 2004 in LA
'Here's this guy from a neighborhood similar to where I grown up that made it to these unreachable heights,' he said of his old friend. 'Puff was the first one that came through and made us feel like it was us.'
After allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against Diddy and numerous lawsuits were filed against him, Jay and Beyoncé both stayed silent on the allegations.
But Jay-Z was pulled into the controversy late last year when an anonymous woman filed a lawsuit against him and Diddy in which she accused both of raping her in 2000 — when she was only 13 — at an afterparty for the MTV Video Music Awards.
Jay-Z denied any connection to the woman and said the lawsuit was a 'blackmail attempt' in a blistering response, and she ultimately withdrew the lawsuit in February.
Oprah Winfrey
Although Oprah Winfrey isn't as closely connected to Diddy as some other stars, fans were particularly interested in her connection to him due to her squeaky-clean image.
Although the former talk show host has stayed silent on her friendship with the rapper, she did briefly distance herself from his 'freak-off' parties just weeks ago.
During a conversation with Bishop T.D. Jakes — who had also been linked to Diddy — on June 19 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, Texas, Oprah indicated that she had never been to one of the mogul's parties
'First of all, I've never been near a Puff party. And anybody who knows me knows if there is a party I'm the first one out,' she said, according to Washington, DC's Fox 5. 'I'm the first one out.'
Jakes also claimed he would stop by Diddy's home 'for 30 minutes to say happy birthday to him' with his staff members present, but he complained that rumors spread linking him to Diddy beyond that.
Naomi Campbell
The supermodel Naomi Campbell has been a longtime friend of Diddy who helped celebrate his birthday with him in November of 2023.
Their connection goes back at least to the early 2000s, when they were rumored to be in a relationship, though neither party ever admitted to a romance.
The relationship rumors appear to have shot into overdrive after Diddy and Naomi posed together for Vogue in 2001, not long after his split from Jennifer Lopez.
The catwalk star denied at the time that she and the rapper were an item.
Although they have been pictured throughout the years, Naomi appears to have stayed silent in the wake of the sexual misconduct accusations leveled against Diddy and the subsequent federal charges filed against him.
However, after Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit in which she accused him of raping her, forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes and abusing her for years, both Naomi and another attendee of his 2023 birthday party, Janet Jackson, deleted their photos from the event from social media.
Jennifer Lopez
Diddy's former girlfriend Jennifer Lopez's silence about him is somewhat understandable, as they had a difficult breakup.
However, the two were reported to have maintained friendly relations in subsequent years.
The two began dating in 1999 after they met on the set of her music video for If You Had My Love, and he coproduced her album On The 6.
In December of that year, J.Lo was with Diddy when he and his entourage were involved in an argument at a club in Manhattan that escalated to gunshots that injured three people.
Jennifer, Diddy and his bodyguard fled the club before police intercepted them and found a stolen gun in the car, and one of the victims from the club shooting claimed that it was Diddy who shot her.
Both he and his then-girlfriend were arrested in the aftermath, but Jennifer was soon released and charges against her were dropped.
Diddy was eventually acquitted of gun possession charges, though a rapper in his entourage was convicted of gun possession and assault.
However, no one was ever charged for the actual shootings.
The trial put a stain on Diddy and Jennifer's relationship, and they eventually broke up, reportedly on poor terms, in 2001, though they were reported to have subsequently developed a friendship.
Jennifer later accused Diddy of having cheated on her during the relationship, though she admitted that it was only a suspicion and she never caught him in the act or found incontrovertible proof.
'I just knew. He'd say he was going to a club for a couple of hours and then never came back that night,' she told Vibe in 2003.
In her 2024 documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Jennifer spoke about an ex who had been abusive to her, though she refused to name them.
'There were people in my life who said "I love you" and then didn't do things that were kind of in line with the word "love." Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,' she said.
'I mean, I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God, but I've definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things. Rough. Disrespectful,' she added in the documentary, which was released in February 2024, months after Cassie's bombshell lawsuit was filed and settled, and a month before Diddy's mansions were raided by the FBI.
Lil' Kim
Diddy and Lil' Kim's friendship dates to the 1990s, when she traveled in his circles after being signed to his friend Biggie Smalls' record label.
But the two had a falling out after Kim was sentenced to a year in prison for perjury in 2005.
'I'm bothered by his actions, because I rolled with Puffy to the bitter end, and still would have rolled with him,' she told MTV News. 'Puffy never came to see me in prison, not one time. He didn't write me a letter. He didn't say, "Here's a number for Kim to call," not one time.'
Their friendship took another hit when she cut ties with him after she reportedly felt that he didn't come to her defense during a feud with Nicki Minaj.
But the two later worked out their difference, and Lil' Kim was among the guests at Diddy's birthday party in November 2023.
But when it came to the sexual misconduct accusations levied against him and the criminal charges filed against him, Kim appears to have remained silent.
Mariah Carey
Diddy's friend and former collaborator Mariah Carey was among his A-list pals whose names were mentioned earlier in his racketeering and sex-trafficking trial, though she wasn't accused of any wrongdoing.
Carey famously collaborated with Diddy for her 1997 song Honey.
He helped produce the song, which she wrote, and he added his own vocals to a subsequent remix version and appeared in her music video for the song.
The two stayed chummy and were pictured in each other's company in subsequent years.
Mariah was given a chance to respond to the allegations against Diddy in a November 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Times, but she mostly downplayed his contributes to her Butterfly single.
Although she admitted that it was now 'weird' to hear him on the track, she said that 'Honey was more a representation of me than anybody else, and I know that.
'The other people that were involved — or maybe the other person that we're talking about — wasn't really that involved.'
Usher
Diddy served as a mentor of sorts to a young Usher, who was only 13 when the rapper became his legal guardian.
He went on to produce Usher's self-titled 1994 debut album.
Despite having lived with Diddy and having remained friends with him for years, Usher has so far stayed silent about the accusations against his former guardian.
However, in a 2004 Rolling Stone interview, Usher said that Diddy had introduced him to 'a totally different set of s*** — sex, specifically.'
'There was always girls around,' he said of Diddy's home during the period they were close. 'You'd open a door and see somebody doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen.'
Although it wasn't clear how old Usher was at the time, he said during his 35th birthday celebrations in 2013: 'I was introduced to everything by Puff Daddy when I was only 15 — parties, women, sex and drugs.
'I've had a taste of it but I'd never let it take me over,' he added, and he clarified in a Howard Stern interview from 2016 that he wouldn't pass on any of the lessons from Diddy to his children.
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher was regularly spotted hanging out with Diddy in the early 2000s.
In a 2019 Hot Ones interview, Ashton said that he got to know the rapper after he ordered him not to try to prank him on his reality series Punk'd.
The show was made by MTV, which also produced Diddy's series Making The Band, which brought the two into each other's orbits.
'I was like, "I don't know what to tell you, everybody is on the table." That started our conversation. We became fast friends and we used to just hang out, watch football together,' he said.
In the same interview, he coyly mentioned Diddy's infamous parties without sharing many details.
'I've got a lot I can't tell,' he joked while eating hot wings.
'Can't tell that one either,' he said while 'cycling through' his memories of the parties. 'Diddy party stories, man, that was some weird memory lane thing.'
But Ashton hasn't spoken publicly about his connection to Diddy since the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in late 2023.