As one of the most recognisable names in hip-hop, Sean Combs — better known as P Diddy — built a star-studded network spanning the music, film, fashion and business worlds. For decades, a coveted invitation to his famously lavish parties resembled a golden ticket into the upper echelons of Hollywood.
Whether an opulent birthday bash, record label get-together or one of his famous White Parties – which he threw annually between 1998 and 2009 – everything was first-class. The free-flowing champagne was the finest. Everyone was dressed in designer. And you could rub shoulders with the biggest names in Hollywood, from the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to Beyoncé and Jay Z.
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore attend a P Diddy White party
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Featuring on said guest lists used to be a badge of honour. But the rap mogul is now facing sentencing on charges related to prostitution following a two-month court case that exposed him as a domestic abuser and drug addict. Since his arrest, the internet has taken a closer look at the A-List faces spotted at the rap mogul’s parties through the years, especially amid the reports of his “freak off” parties, which were allegedly a hotbed for exploitation and verbal, emotional and physical abuse.
Now, the names that once populated Diddy’s guestbook are more shameful than starry. Here’s a look back on who he used to party with, from Jay Z and Usher to Prince Harry.
Mentees: Mary J. Blige and Usher
As a rapper, producer and record label head, it’s unsurprising that Diddy rubbed shoulders with the biggest names in music in his spare time. But he was also a mentor to industry newcomers, nurturing the early careers of some of R&B and rap music’s heavy-hitters in the 90s including The Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige and Usher. The disgraced mogul produced the majority of Blige’s 1992 debut album and has been photographed extensively with her over the decades (including at his 2003 and 2004 White Parties). Despite attending a release party for Combs’ album in 2023, fans have speculated that an Instagram post by Blige last March, in which she says she “burns bridges as needed”, is about her relationship with Diddy.
Sean Combs with Jay-Z, Usher and Mariah Carey at Usher’s 26th birthday party in 2004
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A teenage Usher lived with Combs for a period in 1994 at the request of his then-label executive L.A Reid. He hasn’t commented on the charges brought against the 54-year-old but has been quoted about his experiences at his parties. “There was always girls around. You’d open a door and see somebody doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy,” he told radio star Howard Stern — a fellow guest pictured at Combs’ parties — in a 2016 interview.
Young stars: Aaliyah and Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber in 2009
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In resurfaced images, the late R&B singer Aaliyah appears in a bed alongside Diddy’ ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and record executive Damon Dash at Combs’ 2000 Fourth of July celebration, aged just 19. Dash responded to the response to the images on an Instagram live: “Nah, I didn’t go to those parties… I went to one about 20 years ago in the Hamptons with Aaliyah but that’s about it. A lot of people were at those, you know what I mean?” When Aaliyah died in a plane crash a year later, Combs was a guest at her funeral.
One name that caught attention when it came to Combs’ case was Justin Bieber. It’s widely known that the rap mogul took a young Bieber under his wing at the start of his career in the 00s, however, the relationship has faced public scrutiny since the claims against the mogul arose.
“Where we’re hanging out and what we’re doing, we can’t really disclose, but it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream. I have been given custody of him,” Diddy claims in a video posted to Bieber’s YouTube channel. A year later, the pair appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show, where the then 41-year-old said of Bieber: “He knows better than to be talking about the things that he does with big brother Puff on national television.”
He knows better than to be talking about the things that he does with big brother Puff on national television
Sean Combs, referring to Justin Bieber while on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show in 2011
Reportedly “disgusted” with the charges facing Combs, Bieber has been pictured socialising with his former “big brother” several times, including at Combs’ Ciroc vodka party in 2014 and at his own 22nd birthday celebrations two years later.
Hip-hop and R&B counterparts: Jay Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Mariah Carey and more
P Diddy, Beyoncé and Jay Z in 2005
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As well as being pictured at numerous music industry events with Diddy in the 00s, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Pharrell and Kanye West attended Diddy’s 50th birthday bash in 2019, joining the likes of newer stars Cardi B and Post Malone. Jay Z – who even had his own Vanity Fair portrait taken with Diddy at the event – can also be seen in an image from Combs’ Fourth of July party in 2000.
Mariah Carey has been snapped with the billionaire at numerous events, including his 35th birthday event in 2004 (where she famously wore a wedding dress) and his 2007 White Party, while Drake joined Kelly Rowland and The Weeknd at a 2014 New Year’s Eve party thrown by Diddy in Florida, where the host reportedly changed into silk pyjamas during the night.
All of the stars mentioned remained silent on Combs’ arrest apart from Jay Z, who spoke up to deny the rape allegations brought forward against him by Texas-based lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
Rapper Jay-Z (R) chats with Sean Combs
Reuters
The Brooklyn-born rapper was accused in a civil suit of raping a 13-year-old girl with Combs in 2000 after the Video Music Awards (VMAs). According to the legal action, the accuser remembers going to Diddy’s afterparty and lying down in a room because she was given a drink that made her feel “woozy”. Once in the room, she claims that Combs and Carter entered the room and raped her while an unnamed female celebrity watched.
In a statement posted to social media, Jay Z wrote: “My lawyer received a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a ‘lawyer’ named Tony Buzbee.
“What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No sir, it had the opposite effect! It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a VERY public fashion. So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!”
In his statement, as well as denying the allegations, Jay Z said: “My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.”
Socialites, supermodels and media personalities
As the ultimate it-girl of the 00s, it seems Paris Hilton never missed a Diddy get-together – whether pictured with Nicole Ritchie at his 35th birthday celebrations or dancing the night away at his 2003 and 2006 White Parties. At the latter, which was hosted in Saint Tropez, the heiress posed alongside a then-unknown Kim Kardashian and Combs on a bed, images of which have raised eyebrows since his arrest. “Had such an epic time at Diddy’s house party last night!” she captioned an Instagram post in 2017, while in 2022 she told Ellen DeGeneres that the best party she’d ever been to was “Puffy’s 50th birthday, it was so sick”.
That wasn’t the only time Kim Kardashian was spotted at a Combs party, either. The media personality posed for photographers at his 50th with her sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, and back in 2015, her mother Kris Jenner and sister Kourtney Kardashian attended his Ciroc birthday event held in Beverly Hills.
Sean Combs’s 50th birthday party with (L-R) Kim Kardashian West, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner
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Avid conspiracy theorist and disgraced comedian Russell Brand — who himself faced and denied a number of allegations of sexual assault and abuse in 2023 — revealed in one 2010 interview that Diddy took him on an “enforced” holiday to Las Vegas. “Say you don’t want to do something and Diddy does want you to do it, it’s really hard to not do that thing,” he said of his Get Him to the Greek co-star.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has taken to red carpets with Combs and partied with him after award shows, at the 2015 Met Gala and at several of his birthday soirées. “We’ve known each other for 20-something years… We really do have a brother-sister relationship, and I adore him,” she told AOL in 2020. In 2022, she personally threw Diddy an intimate birthday at Soho’s swanky LAVO, which was covered by Vogue and attended by Janet Jackson and Idris Elba.
Naomi Campbell and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in 2017 in London
Dave Benett/Getty Images for App
In 2010, Kevin Hart hosted a party for the rapper to mark the release of his Last Train to Paris album in a New York hotel room. Streamed online, footage shows Hart flanked by two bikini-clad women, one of whom’s hair accidentally sets on fire from a candle. Another clip shows Hart next to Combs as he sits on a bed sipping champagne. When quizzed by MailOnline in September about “hosting” Diddy, Hart responded: “Wrong person, wrong question.”
Combs struck a surprising friendship with Ashton Kutcher in the early 00s, with Kutcher even co-hosting the 2009 White Party at Combs’ house, where guests included Chris Brown, Lil’ Kim, and Kutcher’s then-wife Demi Moore. “I’ve got a lot I can’t tell,” he told Sean Evans regarding Diddy’s parties he’s attended during a 2019 Hot Ones appearance. “Diddy party stories, man, that was some memory lane thing.”
I’ve got a lot I can’t tell
Ashton Kutcher, referring to Sean Combs’ parties
One of Diddy’s 2004 Miami parties – where food was allegedly served on the chest of a naked woman – included Will Smith and Bruce Willis as big-name guests. Kate Beckinsale attended a 2022 event celebrating Combs BET’ lifetime achievement award win as well his London birthday party that year, while Lindsay Lohan has rubbed shoulders with Diddy a number of times, including during a private get-together aboard his yacht in Cannes in 2008 and at his 2009 White Party.
A source close to Leonardo DiCaprio denied claims that the actor had any involvement with Diddy’s freak-offs after an image of DiCaprio resurfaced from the mogul’s inaugural White Party in 1998. “He has nothing to do with any of that world, so for anyone to assume that he will get roped into this based on a few grainy photos that are more than 20 years old is ridiculous,” the source told MailOnline. That isn’t the only time the pair have been photographed together, however. DiCaprio was filmed dancing at his 50th birthday party, and in a 2017 Vogue interview Combs named the Oscar-winning actor as the “number one” invitee for his upcoming White Party.
Instagram @davidbeckham
LeBron James — one of the biggest names in basketball — hasn’t been pictured at a Diddy party, but a comment the sporting star made on a 2020 livestream with Combs has recently raised suspicion that he’s experienced them for himself: “Ain’t no party like a Diddy party,” he grinned.
Even the Beckhams have links with Diddy. Appearing on GMTV in 2006, the mogul said he had a “long distance relationship” with the football icon. “I met David Beckham a long time ago when he attended one of my parties,” Combs — who has been seen with David and Victoria at a number of events since — said.
During a World Cup charity auction hosted by the footballer that year, Diddy offered an array of lavish experiences for the highest bidder to choose from. “Choice A is a weekend at my house in the Hamptons, fully staffed… Number 2 is a studio session with me… or number 3 is a night out with Diddy on a Saturday night in New York, and I promise you, your a** will wake up on Wednesday lying beside me,” he tells guests in an unearthed video. The clip shows Wayne Rooney winning the auction with a bid worth £150k, however Combs told Graham Norton years later that Coleen Rooney banned Wayne from claiming his prize.
Despite being an unexpected addition to the guest list, businesswoman and celebrity chef Martha Stewart attended Diddy’s 1998 and 2009 birthday celebrations – even writing a blog post on her website about her time at the latter. “I attended what was being dubbed in the news as ‘the party of the century’” she wrote. “The party was simply stunning and I had such a fantastic time”.
Founding Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is another name whose surprising friendship with Combs has been documented over the years. The 62-year-old posed with the rapper and Mariah Carey at the 2007 edition of the White Party, while the late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross were pictured at two separate Diddy parties in 2004.
Royalty and political figures
In March, Prince Harry was named in a lawsuit worth $30 million brought against Combs. The lawsuit, by producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones, said that Diddy used his associations with “international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry” to draw guests to his freak-off parties. Although there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on Prince Harry’s behalf, images of Harry, Prince William, Diddy and Kanye West backstage at the 2007 Concert for Diana have emerged online. When asked by Graham Norton in 2011 if he wanted to invite the princes to his parties, the rapper replied: “Not any more, they’re off the list. But before, when they were young bucks, they were getting up to trouble themselves. So I was like, ‘Hey, why don’t you come out and hang with me’.”
Princes William (left) and Harry (right) with Kanye West (left) and Sean Combs (right), in 2007
PA
Once calling Diddy a “good guy” during an episode of The Apprentice, former President Donald Trump appears to have had a long-standing friendship with the fellow entrepreneur. In 1997, Trump and his ex-wife Ivana watched the US Open with Combs, and Trump attended the opening of Diddy’s restaurant, Justin’s, that same year. In the 00s they were pictured at several galas and charity events with the likes of Melania Trump, Naomi Campbell and Lenny Kravitz. His daughter Tiffany Trump attended the 2009 White Party with her mother Marla Maples, who said she was struck by “all these beautiful people in white. It made you feel like you kind of stepped into another dimension”.
