What Was It Like to Party With P. Diddy?
Is this music’s Me Too moment? In late 2023, Cassie Ventura filed a now-settled civil lawsuit to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs (also known as P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, and Love) of rape and years of abuse. Less than a year later, Combs — who has consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and sex trafficking leveled against him in multiple complaints — was arrested and charged with sex crimes in a federal indictment. The situation escalated on October 1, when news broke that 120 new lawsuits are set to be filed against Combs. An attorney representing the victims has hinted that “household names” will be mentioned in the suits. The public has since been busy speculating about potential celebrity involvement given just how many famous people in the early aughts have been photographed at a Puff party.
Combs’s reputation for throwing parties predates his music-mogul days. As a Howard University student, he was already hosting events that sometimes attracted up to 1,000 people, according to Harlem World Magazine. He worked as a rap party promoter earlier in his career and, as a household name, partied with celebs in the Hamptons, Los Angeles, Miami, Morocco, St. Tropez, and Ibiza. “I love being a host,” Combs once told Jimmy Fallon, adding, “Nobody’s going to remember the takers; they’re going to remember the givers.” He was best known for his highly publicized White Parties, which were held from 1998 to 2009, though he also hosted bashes for birthdays and other occasions. He has told stories on late-night TV about how Michael Jackson once came to one of his parties to “holla at” then-single-lady Beyoncé, and how invites were such a hot commodity that Henry Winkler allegedly once got through two barricades, “pushed past” security, and ran to hide in the bathroom just to get inside. His guest lists over the years have included everyone from Harvey Weinstein to Donald Trump to Paris Hilton to Martha Stewart, who once blogged about one of his events. Combs seemingly also liked to document his bashes. In 2008, he told People that he was one of two people who got naked in the pool during a party he threw for a Ciroc commercial. “We have that footage locked away and in a safe,” he said. “I always keep cameras rolling. You never know what may happen.”
Prosecutors have now accused Combs of recording illegal activity during “Freak Offs,” which they describe as sometimes dayslong sexual performances involving sex workers and participants who were allegedly coerced with drugs and threats. The 14-page federal indictment against Combs does not mention his White Parties. But a recent lawsuit alleges that bad behavior happened at those events, too. Adria English claims she was hired as a go-go dancer at White Parties in the Hamptons and Miami in the aughts, but was allegedly plied with drugs and coerced into having sex with guests. (English is reportedly seeking new representation to continue her case; Combs’s representatives have denied her claims, calling them “fabricated.”) Several former attendees have alleged that his parties had a reputation for taking a more illicit turn after a certain hour or in areas only certain guests could access.
Others have drawn a strong distinction between Combs’s celebrity gatherings and the crimes he’s being accused of; a source close to Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, emphasized to the Daily Mail that the actor only went to the house parties that “literally everyone” attended. Representatives for Combs have also criticized increased scrutiny of the White Parties, saying in a statement, “It’s disappointing to see the media and social commentators twist these cultural moments into something they were not. Shaming celebrities who attended, taking video clips and photos out of context, and trying to link these events to false allegations is simply untrue.”
What do we actually know about what it was like to party with P. Diddy? Below, a decade of details from Combs, the people who showed up (or declined to come), and the media.
Diddy
Undated: In footage obtained by Fox News, Combs addresses the crowd during one of the White Parties he hosted from 1998 to 2009. “The kids have an hour left. Get extra comfortable, kids, because after that y’all got to go. It’s a wrap for y’all,” he says from a balcony to scattered laughter. “Because this thing turns into something that when y’all get older, y’all are going to want to come to.”
July 1997: Combs characterizes himself as a chill host during a party at his Hamptons mansion. ”That’s the way I am, man,” he tells a guest while “treading water in the pool and trying to keep friends from pushing fully clothed female guests into the water,” per the New York Times. “’When you saw me in the hot tub before, I wasn’t with a bunch of girls and didn’t have Champagne around me. I was by myself, enjoying myself, open to everybody. I’m always just thinking and observing.”
1999: Combs implies that authorities want him to stop throwing his parties, claiming to Entertainment Tonight that he’s been denied permits for the events. “But we ain’t gonna stop. We gonna keep on having fun, bringing people together from all walks of life,” he says. “You’re gonna hear about my parties — they’re gonna be shutting ’em down, they’re gonna probably be arresting me, doing all types of crazy things just ’cause we wanna have a good time.” According to Combs, the party poopers are just “intimidated” because his get-togethers “broaden people’s horizons” and break down racial and generational barriers.
May 2002: When asked by Conan O’Brien what makes a good party, Combs brings up “beautiful women, of course” (and “beautiful men” for them). There needs to be water, not just alcohol, because otherwise “a lot of ladies” will leave. “You need locks on the doors,” he adds. When O’Brien suggests that this description is starting to sound “dangerous,” Combs concedes, “It’s a little kinky.” Another party tip? No air conditioning. “Heat affects the alcohol,” he explains. “Everybody also gets a little more comfortable and loose, builds up a nice little sweat.”
August 2003: Diddy tells Rolling Stone that a recording-studio session a couple years ago turned into a “big party” as people came by. “I was having so much fun, I didn’t realize three days went by,” he says. “Pure energy. It got real wild. Lots of hit records, lots of sexiness.”
November 2006: Combs explains to Oprah that he started hosting White Parties because he “wanted to strip away everyone’s image and put us all in the same color and on the same level.” He describes the inaugural event as a “down-home cookout” with 200 people — from Leonardo DiCaprio to some of his “boys from Harlem” — that lasted until the next morning.
October 2008: Combs tells People that a party he threw for a Ciroc commercial lasted six hours. “Somebody got naked and got into the pool. Actually two people did. And one of them was me,” he recalls. “We have that footage locked away and in a safe. I always keep cameras rolling. You never know what may happen.”
2009: Diddy surprises Ellen DeGeneres by saying his parties start at 9:30 p.m. She expected his answer would be midnight. “That’s a different type of party, though,” says Diddy, prompting audience laughter. He adds that his parties usually end at 2 or 3 a.m. and mentions that he’ll then have the top two floors of a hotel. “Mm-hmm, and then it will carry on there,” DeGeneres interrupts, raising her eyebrows slightly. Diddy clarifies that he’s talking about the after-party. “No, I know about them,” she replies.
December 2009: Combs brings up his lavish 40th-birthday party in an interview with the Gainesville Sun. He denies reports that the party set him back $3 million, noting that sponsors paid for most of the event. “There’s not going to be a lot of parties like that no more,” he adds. “It gets to the point where it’s time to move on to something else.”
The guests
May 2004: Usher recalls living at Combs’s house in Scarsdale after moving to New York, when he would have been around 15 years old. He tells Rolling Stone that Combs introduced him “to a totally different set of shit — sex, specifically.” According to Usher, there were always girls around the house. “You’d open a door and see somebody doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy,” he adds. “You never knew what was going to happen.”
September 2009: Marlon Wayans tweets, “Been doin’ Diddy parties for 15 years and I must say you never let me down Puff. Aint no party like a Diddy party. Good times. People!”
November 2009: A 15-year-old Justin Bieber posts a YouTube video about spending “48 HRS with DIDDY!!” In the two-minute clip, Combs says he “can’t really disclose” where he and Bieber are going and what they’re going to do, but hints, “It’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream.” Combs says that while he doesn’t have legal guardianship of Bieber like he once did of Usher, he has been given custody of Bieber for two days. “We gon’ go full, buck-full crazy,” Combs says. When asked what he wants to do, Bieber says, “Let’s just go get some girls. Let’s go hang with some girls,” to which Combs replies, “Man after my heart. That’s what I’m talking about.”
November 2009: Kenny Burns, who tells Vibe that he’s gone to Combs’s parties since the “Howard days,” describes Combs’s 40th-birthday party at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Burns says Combs somehow made it snow inside and had “ballerina dancers as live statues.”
August 2014: In an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Khloé Kardashian mentions that she recently partied with Combs in Las Vegas, confirming that Justin Bieber and French Montana were among the other celebrity guests. Kourtney Kardashian later says that her sister is still drunk from the night out. “I got on a plane at 5:30 a.m. for this party,” Khloé says. “I think half the people there were butt naked.”
March 2016: Jimmy Fallon recalls on his late-night show that Combs once sent him a “self-destructing” party invitation. (“I remember. I’m very high-concept,” replies Combs.) Fallon says it was one of the best parties he’s ever attended. “It was just packed, and everyone was drinking and dancing and having a good time,” he recalls. “You gave me a shout out — you would announce people who came into the party.”
August 2016: On The Howard Stern Show, Usher again brings up the fact that, as a teenager, he lived with Combs for a year. Stern asks if the house was “filled with chicks and orgy-ing like nonstop.” Usher replies, “Nah, not really,” though he notes that he got a “chance to see some things” that he didn’t necessarily understand at the time. He describes his experience as “pretty wild,” noting that famous guests would sometimes be over until 3 a.m. Would Usher ever send his own kids to live at “Puffy Flavor Camp”? Usher’s response is quick and succinct: “Hell no.”
May 2018: Jamie Foxx tells Stephen Colbert that he used to hang out with Combs and “watch him throw parties,” claiming that a single one of Combs’s bashes in Philadelphia cost $1.5 million.
May 2018: Jonathan Oddi is arrested for firing a gun at a Trump resort in Miami. In a now-resurfaced video of an interrogation, the former porn star and stripper reportedly alleges that he had sex with Cassie while Combs masturbated and told him what to do. “I was like a sex slave, okay?” he says, further alleging that he did drugs with Combs and got herpes from one encounter. Oddi does not specifically mention parties, but some have speculated that his claims are connected to Combs’s alleged “Freak Offs” and sex parties.
September 2019: Ashton Kutcher is asked on Hot Ones if he has any “Diddy party stories” to share. “Wow, okay, I’ve got a lot I can’t tell,” Kutcher replies. After a sigh, he adds with a laugh, “Can’t tell that one either. I’m just cycling through them.”
2020: Per the New York Post, LeBron James goes live with Combs on Instagram, at one point saying, “Hey, everybody know, ain’t no party like a Diddy party.”
December 2021: Fabolous asks on his Instagram Story if his followers have ever felt “peer pressured into going to the afties.” He goes on to share that he once told Combs he “was going to the bathroom and slid,” adding that the party had gone on until 7 a.m. and Combs “was still turnt!”
June 2024: Tom Swoope posts two YouTube videos sharing his memories of Diddy’s White Parties, during which he claimed drugs like ecstasy and cocaine were snorted off of people’s bodies. He describes “tiers” of access that went from general admission to more private rooms where acts of sexual humiliation allegedly happened with the promise of money or record deals. In one instance, Swoope alleges that Combs told a male pop star to perform oral sex on a bodyguard, only to say it was just a joke right before the person followed through.
September 27, 2024: Good Fridae tells the U.S. Sun that Combs invited her and a friend to a hotel party after meeting her at a record store when promoting his 1999 album Forever. Fridae alleges seeing guests have sex “in chairs, in corners, in bathrooms, anywhere they could.” She also alleges that cocaine, ecstasy, pills, weed, and alcohol were available — and that security said there was a second, more private party that they would be asked to join later. Fridae suggests that it was taking place behind a locked, guarded door.
September 29, 2024: YouTuber Jeff Witek recalls on his Jeff FM podcast that he went to a Combs “lingerie sex party, ‘Freak Off’ party” in a Miami mansion around 2010. “It was like eight stories high, and it just kept going up, and the higher you went, the weirder shit was,” Witek claims. He adds that he saw “live sex” happen. While Witek says he didn’t participate, he does recall getting “fucking drunk.”
September 29, 2024: Jay Blaze is quoted in the New York Times reflecting on his experience at Combs’s 2009 White Party. Blaze, who crashed the event, says he felt uncomfortable as the sun set. He claims that he witnessed drunk men groping models in the pool and preventing them from changing into dry clothes. “The response was: ‘It’s a hip-hop party, it’s a Diddy party, it’s the White Party,’” he says.
October 2, 2024: Justin Litovsky, who says his mother brought him to a Diddy White Party as a child in the ’90s, comes forward to tell the New York Post that he attended the event at 6 years old and remembers “a lot of weed” and a “bunch of topless women in the pool.”
The early exits and no-shows
January 3, 2024: “P. Diddy be wanting to party, and you got to tell him ‘no.’ You got to tell him ‘no’! I did,” Katt Williams says on an episode of Shannon Sharpe’s podcast that went viral for multiple other over-the-top claims. Williams seemingly suggests that he refused to attend in order to protect his “integrity” and “virgin hole.” He also predicts that Diddy is one of several “deviants” who’ll face consequences in 2024.
January 15, 2024: When asked if he’s ever been to a P. Diddy party, Brandon T. Jackson tells RealLyfe Street Starz podcast that he makes an early exit. “Leave 30 minutes before the devil gets there. That’s what Denzel told me,” he adds.
July 31, 2024: 50 Cent tells The Hollywood Reporter that he’s been vocal about not attending “Puffy parties.” “I’ve been staying out of that shit for years,” he says. “It’s just an uncomfortable energy connected to it.” He alleges that some people are staying quiet because they attended the parties and aren’t sure what was caught on tape.
September 22, 2024: Damon Dash says in an Instagram Live that he went to a Diddy party in the Hamptons, but “ain’t shit” happened. He seemingly implies that other locations might have been different by pointing out that the party he attended was “not in L.A. or Miami.”
September 22, 2024: Ice Cube assures fans at a Las Vegas concert that he and fellow rapper WC “ain’t never been to a Diddy party,” adding that they don’t need to worry about seeing them on “those motherfucking tapes.”
September 24, 2024: Kendra Wilkinson says on The Kyle & Jackie O Show that she went to “one or two” Combs parties when she was younger. She notes that she never saw anything “really bad” happening, adding, “Sex is sex in my opinion.” (Wilkinson later issues an apology walking back the wording of her comments.)
September 26, 2024: Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire, a former publicity director who worked with Combs’s Bad Boy Entertainment through her role at Arista Records, says in the TMZ documentary The Downfall of Diddy: The Indictment that she was “on high alert” about Diddy’s parties. “I know that there’s no safety after a certain hour when you’ve got drinks flowing, and people behind your back doing drugs in bathrooms, and two or three people walking out of a bathroom together,” she says in the documentary, though she clarifies that she never stayed “late enough” to see wrongdoing. Podcaster Adam22 also claims in the documentary that it was “always known” that staying at a party “at Puff’s house” past certain hours meant that you “might be introduced to a massive orgy.”
September 26, 2024: On The Enthusiast Podcast, 50 Cent explains that he avoided Combs’s parties because he’s “just not with all that freaky shit,” adding, “All of the stuff he’s doing, I’m not into that type of stuff. I’m just a little more, maybe you could say, basic or normal.”
The media
August 1998: The New York Times declares that 1998 will be remembered in the Hamptons as “the Summer of Puff Daddy” due to the parties he threw in the mansion he purchased for a reported $2.5 million that year. The piece describes a recent dinner party with 75 guests at the home, which is decorated with all-white furniture, floors, and linens. According to writer Monique P. Yazigi, Combs moves through the crowds “tightly focused, without a drink or a smoke in hand, declining even to acknowledge flirtatious overtures from women drawn to him.”
November 1998: Diddy throws himself a 29th-birthday party that Time magazine later calls “coronation-like.”
December 1999: The New York Times describes Combs’s birthday party the previous year as an “overcrowded, $600,000” affair at Cipriani Wall Street that had “unhappy celebrities waiting in the cold.” The same article notes that his “Gatsbyesque” house parties “have earned him the ire of neighbors but the awe of his many guests.”
April 2000: NME reports that Combs canceled a show at London Wembley Arena hours before he was scheduled to perform. The Sun reportedly claimed “a month’s supply of top quality champagne and cognac” was consumed at a Combs-hosted a “wild night” at a club where he partied until 8 a.m. that morning; Combs’s press office said that the cancellation was because he had a rehearsal in Los Angeles.
August 2002: The New York Post shares the dress code on invitations for a post-MTV VMAs party that Combs co-hosted with Guy Oseary. Attendees are instructed to wear “top designers.” “Think the person you want to marry is inside; think of me at the GFDA Awards, Kentucky Derby, my New Year’s Eve party in Miami or my Hamptons White Party,” the invite suggests, adding that men must have clean shaves and haircuts. For women, waxing, manicures, and pedicures are listed as “a must.”
September 2002: Combs is profiled by The New Yorker. He nearly misses an 8 a.m. flight from JFK to Paris for Fashion Week; the piece notes that Combs didn’t leave a party in Atlanta the night before until around 4 a.m. and then took a private jet straight to New Jersey. He’s already looking ahead to partying more, telling the writer, “don’t come with us if you can’t stay out with us. I fully intend to show Paris the respect it deserves. We are going to rock that place to the ground.’’
August 2003: Police are reportedly called to a party that Combs was DJ-ing at a villa in St. Tropez. According to the Daily Mirror, a neighbor calls the cops after Combs refused a request — at 7 a.m. — to turn down the music that she says is keeping her and her 2-year-old awake.
July 2004: The New York Post reports that police and fire marshals showed up to a July 4 party at Combs’s Hamptons mansion after a “multitude” of complaints about noise and traffic. Combs reportedly brought a copy of the Declaration of Independence to the event, which doubles as a “Vote or Die” political rally. According to the Post, at least 16 cars were towed and dozens of tickets were handed out. A local councilman expressed regret over issuing the party a permit. “We had a situation where people kept turning up thinking they could get in. It turned into a lot more people than we expected,” a lawyer for party organizers told the Post. More than 1,000 guests reportedly showed up.
August 2004: Spanish police officers reportedly board Combs’s yacht in Ibiza after he allegedly ignores a neighboring boat’s complaints about his music being too loud.
November 2006: The Observer reports that Combs’s 29th-birthday party at 55 Wall Street cost more than $500,000, with three firms hired to construct a dance floor, lounge furniture, and “Plexiglas go-go dancing booths.” The piece describes three tiers of exclusivity to the party, noting that the dance floor was open to all but only certain VIPs were allowed to climb a stairway and enter a lounge area. The top tier, not accessible from this lounge, was Combs’s VVIP area and the location of the DJ booth.
September 2010: The New York Daily News reports that Combs threw a “small gathering” in the Hamptons. Cassie, then rumored to be Combs’s girlfriend, is described as the “unofficial hostess” who “didn’t leave Diddy’s side the whole time.” A source speculates that the event was more low-key because neighbors called the police on a previous White Party.
December 2010: “Page Six” reports that a model’s hair caught fire when she leaned over a candle in a bathtub at a party with 200 people in a Manhattan hotel penthouse. Kevin Hart jokingly tells the cameras to cut in resurfaced footage of the incident. A rep for Combs at the time said the event was a listening session with a few friends.
June 2021: A dancer’s feathered skirt reportedly catches on fire from a candle while she was performing on a table at a party hosted by Combs in Atlanta. “Nothing was left but her string thong. She was panicking and quickly extinguished,” a source tells “Page Six.”
September 19, 2024: A drug dealer tells the New York Post that he was once brought inside Combs’s Hamptons mansion during a party for a cocaine deal. The unnamed source alleges that many guests were high on ketamine and GHB and describes seeing famous celebs having sex in “the inner sanctum” of the back bedrooms.
September 26, 2024: Selma Fonseca, an entertainment photojournalist who has attended Combs parties on both coasts in 2007 and 2009, recalls to the New York Post that Combs would have girls in bikinis and “revealing outfits” at parties, adding that there were always “super sexy” dancers and that attendees got more “touchy” once it got dark. “People were hooking up, making out,” she recalls. She also claims that guests seemed to be high on weed and ecstasy, but notes that she never saw Combs himself using any drugs. Footage shared by the Post shows Combs at a past party issuing an apparent reminder that the party wouldn’t be family-friendly the whole night: “If child welfare come in here in 30 minutes, that’s on y’all. My kids are downstairs — 15 minutes, the kids have to go. Thank you very much.”
September 29, 2024: The New York Times reports that Combs hired a man named Nicholas Kraus to “conduct diplomacy” with Long Island neighbors over the White Parties. Kraus tells the Times that efforts to prevent noise complaints included offering them limo rides and comped meals at fancy restaurants.
September 29, 2024: New York Post writer Chris Harris recalls crashing a Combs party at his East Hampton mansion in July 1999. He claims that the swimming pool was full of “naked and topless women,” models handed out Champagne, and scantily clad women “gyrated atop wooden platforms.” According to Harris, only famous guests were allowed in the mansion. “I saw no lubricant, no sex toys, and no ‘pink cocaine,’” Harris writes. “I did see a few people passed out, including the girl who helped me get inside.”
October 2, 2024: Multiple sources tell Us Weekly that party behavior wasn’t the same throughout the night, pointing specifically to the after-parties. “What happened before 2 a.m. pales in comparison to what happened at 5 a.m.,” one source says. Another source who helped manage guests for White Parties between 2006 and 2011 notes that famous celebs would leave at around 2 or 3 a.m. “Girls would start to lose their clothes — that was the signal for people to leave,” the source says, noting that drugs would come out and the partying could last until 7 a.m. Another source claims that sex workers “would do whatever you want.”
October 4, 2024: Magazine editor Amy DuBois Barnett shares a memory of a 2001 Combs party that had been at capacity for hours in The Hollywood Reporter. According to Barnett, the party was shut down by a fire marshal despite Combs getting on a table and saying into a mic, “Please, Mr. Fire Marshal, please don’t shut down the sexy. Look at all the honeys up in here. You and your boys stay. Drinks on me.” Barnett writes that while the only illicit activity she saw was “some drug use in corners,” there was a sense of freedom at his earlier parties. She feels that Combs’s demeanor was different at the last “Puff party” she attended in 2017. Instead of dancing and hyping the crowd, she says he was sitting in a corner looking bored with Cassie, who she claims looked “equally glassy-eyed and sad” at his side.
Related