Sean 'Diddy' Combs: The rise, fall and acquittal of a hip hop mogul

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The streets of Harlem have changed a lot in the half century since Janice Combs brought home her baby son Sean.
What was once an area known for violence, crime and poor living conditions has become a Black mecca of arts, music and culture.
Meanwhile, over that five decades, one of Harlem's most famous sons Sean Combs rose from nothing to become the king of New York.
He lived large, went far and became something his lawyers told a New York jury last week was very hard to become — "a self-made successful black entrepreneur".
Graffiti in Harlem, New York. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) A man on the street in Harlem, New York. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) A bus stop in Harlem, New York. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) A sign for the Harlem Heritage Tourism and Cultural Center. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) Buildings in Harlem, New York. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) The Empire State Building in New York. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz )
But just a subway ride away from his Harlem birthplace, his kingdom nearly came crashing down in a Manhattan courtroom.
A jury of 12 New Yorkers — not the stars and celebrities he spent his life surrounded by — has decided his fate.
He is now a convicted criminal, having been found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but he was acquitted on the most serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, both of which could have seen him spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Before the verdict was handed down, the music mogul's former publicist Rob Shuter told the ABC his team had been planning a party, a celebration fit for a man famous for putting on a show.
A sketch of Sean Combs in court on June 24, 2025. ( Reuters: Jane Rosenberg )
"And knowing Puff, you know who'll be on the top of his invite list? Twelve people — the jurors," Shuter told 7.30.
While he waits to learn his sentence, Shuter believes Diddy may also be planning an appeal.
"He will fight it. He's not the type of person to say 'I respect that judgement'. No, I think he's going to fight this until the very, very, very, very end."
Harlem to Howard dropout
Sean Combs with his mother Janice Combs in 2001. ( Getty: George De Sota )
While Harlem is essential to Diddy's origin story, he actually spent much of his childhood in comparatively safe Mount Vernon, just north of the Bronx.
His mother relocated the family there after Sean's father Melvin Combs — a drug dealer — was shot to death.
Sean was just three at the time and his mother originally told him that his father died in a car accident — a lie he uncovered when he got older.
He later shared the story during a commencement speech at Howard University in 2014:
"When I typed in my father's name and the day he died, I read in the Amsterdam News that he had been murdered in a drug deal gone bad," he said.
"Right there in that library I realised there's nothing greater than a mother's love and desire to protect her child."
Janice Combs outside the courthouse on the first day of her son's trial. ( Reuters: Jeenah Moon )
Combs had enrolled at Howard University in Washington DC to study business but his education took a back-seat to his side hustle; throwing huge parties as well as an internship at New York label Uptown Records.
Drawn back to New York and its thriving hip hop scene, he ultimately dropped out of Howard and returned to his birthplace, honing his skills in the music industry and continuing to throw popular weekly dance parties he called Daddy's House.
Hip hop, R&B and rap were about to have a huge cultural moment and Diddy made sure he was front and centre.
Biggie, Tupac and a deadly rivalry
Sean Combs, pictured left, with singer Aaliyah and rapper Notorious B.I.G in 1994. ( Getty Images: Nitro )
Combs founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and had an early success that would thrust him into the centre of the hip hop scene and the violent East Coast-West Coast rivalry.
One of his first big acts as a producer was the Notorious B.I.G who became an instant star when his debut album, "Ready to Die" dropped in 1994.
Not content to be the invisible hand behind the music, Combs — known as Puff Daddy at the time — placed himself at the centre, rapping on tracks and sharing the limelight with his artists.
Tupac Shakur was shot dead in 1996. ()
In 1997, Biggie was shot and killed in a drive-by murder that remains unsolved but was widely seen as retaliation for the similar killing of '90s West Coast hip-hop star Tupac Shakur.
He had been partying with Combs at the Soul Train Awards in LA but the pair left in separate cars and when Biggie's car was stopped at a red light, he was shot through the driver's side window four times.
Just as he had in life, Combs capitalised on his friendship with the rapper in death, releasing the chart-topping song "I'll Be Missing You", which sampled The Police's Every Breath You Take, penetrated American mainstream music and found him new fans.
The Great Gatsby of the 90s and noughties
Sean Combs, pictured right, at a White Party in 2007. ( Getty Images: Bryan Bedder ) Singer Usher with Sean Combs at a party in 2002. ( Getty Images: KMazur ) Singer Aretha Franklin with Sean Combs at one of his White Parties. ( Getty Images: Dimitrios Kambouris ) Paris Hilton and Nick Carter at one of the White Parties. ( Getty Images: Shareif Ziyadat ) Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Sean Combs and Scott Storch at a White Party. ( Getty Images: Jon Furniss )
According to Shuter, Combs threw parties to "make himself the king of New York".
"He knew he wasn't a terribly good rapper. He was still trying to get in with the in crowd … and he figured out 'I can make a lot more friends and get a lot more attention by throwing the best parties," Shuter told 7.30.
Shuter says Combs got the idea for his famous white parties from novelist and screenwriter Truman Capote's lavish Black and White Ball of the 1960s.
"He knows that if he makes himself the king of New York nightlife, everything else is going to follow."
Sean Combs takes centre stage at one of his White Parties. ( Getty Images: Dimitrios Kambouris )
"And for a while, Puffy was having phone calls from everybody, politicians, celebrities, everybody was trying to get into his parties, and he used that power very carefully."
The guest lists crossed industries and genres — a rolodex of the biggest names of the 90s and early 2000s.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, Beyonce and Jay Z all attended Diddy's famous white parties — where one of the only rules was the all-white dress code.
A big bed at one of the White Parties. ( Getty Images: Dimitrios Kambouris ) Women at a White Party in 2003. ( Getty Images: Dimitrios Kambouris ) A woman in a bubble at a White Party in 2007. ( Getty Images: Bryan Bedder )
According to several lawsuits, the white parties had a dark side, with claims of rape, sex trafficking and drink-spiking which Sean Combs has always denied.
In a home video from one such party, Diddy can be heard telling guests to send their kids home, saying to the children:
"That's a wrap for y'all because this thing turns into something that when you get older, you're gonna want to come to".
Diddy's downward spiral
While rumours and accusations had swirled for years, Diddy's fall from grace really began in late 2023.
Using a MeToo era law that temporarily allowed alleged victims to file civil claims outside of the statute of limitations, Combs' former long-term partner Cassie Ventura sued.
Cassie Ventura with Sean Combs at the 2018 Met Gala. ( Getty: John Shearer )
"With the expiration of New York's Adult Survivors Act fast approaching it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up," she said at the time.
The civil case was settled within 24 hours for $US20 million ($30 million).
Months later, surveillance video emerged showing Combs grabbing, shoving, dragging and kicking Ventura in a hotel hallway in California in 2016.
Prominent MeToo lawyer Gloria Allred said that video no doubt caught the attention of prosecutors and led to the current criminal trial.
The rapper's homes in Los Angeles and Miami were later raided, and police found guns and ammunition, drugs, and large amounts of baby oil and lubricant related to alleged days-long sex marathons dubbed "freak offs".
Combs was charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking – charges he would be acquitted of – while being found guilty of the lesser charge of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Prosecutors had tried to allege that over almost two decades with the aid of staff or "foot soldiers" who protected his reputation, that Combs abused, threatened and coerced women "to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct".
A photo of a box full of Baby Oil and lubrication at one of Sean Combs' homes. ( Supplied ) A photo of shelves filled with Baby Oil at one of Sean Combs' homes. ( Supplied ) A photo of a drawer full of bottles of lubrication and Baby Oil at one of Sean Combs' homes. ( Supplied ) A photo of guns at one of Sean Combs' homes. ( Supplied )
Among the more confronting claims are that Combs asked Ventura to get into an inflatable pool filled with baby oil, ordered an escort to urinate in her mouth, and forced her to keep having sex even with painful back-to-back urinary tract infections.
Combs' lawyers sought to paint the allegations as merely a swinger's lifestyle, describing his relationship with Ventura as a "modern love story".
Ms Allred scoffed at the suggestion.
"I don't call it love if a man is beating his girlfriend, his wife, or a significant other," she said.
"That's not love. That's sexual abuse. That is gendered violence."
Ultimately, the jury — made up of eight men and four women — found the prosecution had failed to prove these relationships and the so-called "freak-offs" at the centre of the allegations were not consensual.
Mob bosses and music moguls
One of the more confounding and complicated elements in the trial of Combs was the use of the racketeering conspiracy charge against him.
RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) was first passed in the 70s to prosecute members of the Mafia and was made famous in the movie The Godfather.
Racketeering charges and America's obsession with the Mafia as portrayed in The Godfather go hand-in-hand.
In short, the prosecution alleged that Combs was the head of a criminal enterprise and that he and his inner circle of "foot soldiers" broke a number of laws including kidnapping, drug distribution and bribery.
Defence Attorney Mitchell Epner said the prosecution had to prove that Combs had an entourage that alongside its legitimate business, had an ongoing criminal purpose as well.
The prosecution ultimately failed to establish that beyond reasonable doubt.
Sean Combs at a 2006 White Party in St Tropez, France. ( Getty Images: Stuart Morton )
He says the reason they may have chosen this charge is to cover the almost two decades of conduct the case covers.
"The RICO charge is a kind of magic eraser for the statute of limitations, because the crime starts when the conspiracy starts and doesn't end until the conspiracy ends," he told 7.30.
"So the government has been able to charge well over a decade of bad acts, many of which, if you were charging only the underlying crime, the statute of limitations would have long since expired."
'The most famous man in the world'
For seven weeks, in New York rain and stifling heat, lines have stretched down the block from the Manhattan courthouse where the case of United States v Combs has been heard.
Journalists, YouTubers, TikTokers and curious New Yorkers have forced the court to open multiple overflow rooms so they could watch the hearing live-streamed, sometimes bickering with each other outside, often snickering at the sordid details.
A reporter covering the Sean Combs trial. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz ) A reporter covering the Sean Combs trial. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz )
Private trauma has become public entertainment alongside the always popular spectacle of a dramatic fall after such a meteoric rise.
Shuter hasn't spoken to his former client during the trial but he believes there's a strange irony in the man who courted fame and was once the ringleader of his own circus, finding himself at the centre of this one.
Rob Shuter is Sean Combs' former publicist. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz )
"Puffy always told me he wanted to be the most famous man in the world. I would argue today he's one of them," Shuter said.
"So there's a sick part of Puffy that will actually be enjoying this moment. He's on the lips of everybody. He's on the covers of newspapers. He's all over the television."
The charges against Sean Combs have drawn out supporters of the women he allegedly victimised. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz )
As Combs sleeps in a Brooklyn jail waiting to learn his sentence, he also faces dozens of civil lawsuits.
So despite his temporary win, the man who spent a lifetime courting fame hasn't seen the last of this unwanted spotlight.
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