Dawn Richard Files Lawsuit Against Diddy, New Accusations of Physical Abuse and Sexual Assault (UPDATE)

UPDATED 9/11, 6:30 p.m. ET: Sean "Diddy" Combs, via his legal team, has responded to the physical abuse and sexual assault lawsuit filed against him by Dawn Richard. According to the message, Diddy is "shocked and disappointed" by the suit, which he claims is a "manufactured series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday."

“Mr. Combs is shocked and disappointed by this lawsuit. In an attempt to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour," reads a statement provided to Complex by Diddy's attorney Erica Wolff. "If Ms. Richard had such a negative experience with Making the Band and Danity Kane, she would not have chosen to continue working directly with Mr. Combs for Dirty Money, nor would she have returned for the Making the Band reboot in 2020 or agreed to be featured on The Love Album last year. It’s unfortunate that Ms. Richard has cast their 20-year friendship aside to try and get money from him, but Mr. Combs is confidently standing on truth and looks forward to proving that in court.” 

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Original Danity Kane member Dawn Richard has filed a lawsuit against Diddy, accusing him of harassment and sexual abuse.

As reported by TMZ, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, 41, recently filed a lawsuit against the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder for an alleged pattern of abuse that began when she participated in his 2004 series Making The Band. In the documents, she accused him of promising to boost her career profile in exchange for malicious favors.

Richard said that Diddy referred to many of the women who auditioned for Making The Band as "fat," "ugly," "bitches," and "hoes." He targeted her especially hard, as she was in her early 20s at the time. In one 2005 incident, she alleged that she saw Diddy's former girlfriend, the late Kim Porter, crying while leaving a music video shoot with visible injuries on her face.

Another incident detailed in the documents involves Diddy's former partner Cassie, who filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against him that was settled the day after it was filed. Richard claims that she saw Diddy violently throw Cassie against a wall, choke her neck, and drag her up a set of stairs at his home in Los Angeles. She noted that he was high on unspecified drugs at the time. Richard also said she saw Diddy throw a scolding hot pan with eggs at Cassie in another outburst.

When she and her Diddy – Dirty Money bandmate Kalenna Harper witnessed these incidents, they advised her to leave Diddy. However, he found out about the conversations and told them, "Y'all bitches don't get in my relationship. ... Don't tell my bitch what she need to be doing ... Just make money and shut the fuck up." Richard claimed that he threatened to end their careers and added, "I shelve careers ... You could be missing ... You bitches want to die today."

As for the abusive behavior she was directly a victim of, Richard alleged that Diddy once forced her to rehearse for 48 hours straight, causing her to drop an alarming amount of weight and suffer from fatigue and dehydration. During a visit to his home in Miami, he greeted her only in his underwear and refused to put on clothes, she said.

His treatment of her progressively got worse between 2009 and 2011, she noted, including an incident in which he forced his way into her dressing room and groped her. She also detailed an alleged incident in which Diddy locked her in a car for two hours, and she was only freed after her Dad traveled from Baltimore to New York and confronted him. "Think about your daughter and think about your daughter's career," she recalled him telling her father.

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