Sean "Diddy" Combs is suing NBCUniversal and its streaming service, Peacock, for $100 million over the documentary "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy," alleging defamatory claims and arguing that the film "shamelessly advances conspiracy theories" against him.
Released in January, the documentary explores Combs' humble beginnings in New York City while also providing accounts of close friends and acquaintances like Al B. Sure! — also known as Albert Joseph Brown — who spoke on the record, questioning details surrounding multiple alleged crimes linked to Combs.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New York, states that "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy" “falsely, recklessly, and maliciously” accuses Combs of being involved in the death of Kim Porter, his ex-partner and the mother of his three children, The Washington Post reported. In the documentary, Brown recounts his last interaction with Porter before her sudden death from pneumonia in 2018, stating, “It was two, three weeks prior to her murder — am I supposed to say ‘allegedly’?”
According to the complaint, “The entire premise of the documentary assumes that Mr. Combs has committed numerous heinous crimes, including serial murder, rape of minors, and sex trafficking of minors, and attempts to crudely psychologize him."
“The documentary advances the false narrative that it cannot be a ‘coincidence’ that Ms. Porter and others in Mr. Combs’s orbit have died, in a malicious attempt to insinuate that Mr. Combs murdered them,” the suit states.
While representatives for NBCUniversal have not responded to requests to comment, in January Salon interviewed the documentary's producer, Ari Mark, who said, "[Combs]" declined [an interview] through legal . . . but we're super careful."
"Just because somebody is being accused of something, doesn't mean we have a right to unnecessarily drag people through the mud without the proper legal to tape around it," he said. "These things are always tricky, but we really do work really hard to make sure that we're being fair. It would have been nice, certainly, to be able to interview the guy."
Combs is currently in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial which begins May 5. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
