Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard sues Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for abuse

In the complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, Richard claims that Combs was abusive throughout the eight years they worked together, which spanned her time in Danity Kane and later as a member of his music trio Diddy-Dirty Money. The lawsuit accuses him of groping her, threatening her and subjecting her to “inhumane working conditions.” Richard also claims to have witnessed Combs get physically violent with other women, including his former partners Ventura and Kim Porter.

Combs denied the “series of false claims” in Richard’s lawsuit in a statement provided by his attorney. The statement said that the singer is seeking “a payday — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.” It also noted their continued work together during a “20-year friendship.”

Since her first encounter with Combs during auditions and on the set of Combs’s MTV reality competition show “Making the Band 3” in 2004, Richard alleged the producer created a hostile environment, berating contestants with disparaging, gender-based remarks and criticizing their appearances. (The show was the genesis of Danity Kane.)

Later, according to the lawsuit, Combs would subject Richard and her bandmates to grueling working conditions, depriving them of food and sleep for stretches of up to 48 hours “because he was high on drugs.”

During her time on “Making the Band 3,” Richard claimed, she saw Porter leaving Combs’s recording studio in tears with “visible facial injuries including a lacerated lip,” which deepened the singer’s fears about Combs’s violent tendencies.

After joining Diddy-Dirty Money in 2009, she said, she witnessed Combs violently assault Ventura on multiple occasions. In one harrowing incident alleged in the suit, Richard said he choked Ventura and threw a “scalding hot pan of eggs” at her. She also accused Combs of punching Ventura in the stomach during a dinner where other celebrities were present. Richard claims that drugs were rampant at Combs’s private “parties” and that guests violated incapacitated young women — some of whom appeared to Richard to be underage — in an echo of previous lawsuits alleging sex parties known as “freakoffs.”

During her time in the Dirty Money trio, Richard claims, Combs repeatedly demeaned her, forced her to strip down to her underwear during recordings. She also accused him of frequently groping her in her changing room “under the guise of showing the stylist what to do.” Once, after Combs allegedly flew into a rage, she was locked in a car with “heavily tinted” windows for more than two hours — until her father drove from Baltimore to New York demanding to see her, Richard claims.

In the lawsuit, Richard also outlined financial grievances, including the claim that she is owed more than $3 million in unpaid wages and royalties from her time with Danity Kane, whose albums sold millions of copies.

Responding to Combs’s denials, Richard’s attorney Lisa Bloom told The Washington Post: “In 2024, sadly, some people still try to shame women for sometimes working with accused abusers. But it is not up to women to give up career opportunities to dodge powerful men who behave badly.”

Richard’s lawsuit arrived a day after a judge awarded $100 million to an inmate who sued Combs in a default judgment for a sexual assault case. Combs’s attorney said he would appeal.

Combs currently faces multiple lawsuits alleging abuse, sexual violence and sex trafficking. He remains under federal investigation but has not been charged with any crimes. The Department of Homeland Security raided several of Combs’s homes in March.

Combs, seen for decades as one of the powerful men in the entertainment industry, has strongly denied any wrongdoing. However, he issued an apology in May after footage of him beating Ventura at a hotel in 2016 was obtained by CNN.

Last summer at DC’s Broccoli City Fest for the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop, Richard told The Post that her father had given her important advice about the music industry that she would pass onto others today.

“His advice to me was, ‘This industry is not what you think it is. So, if you wanna go into this, know that there will be heartbreak, and music may not love you the way you love it.’”

“I know that’s dark,” she continued, “but it prepared me. … I’m so glad my father prepared me for not the fame of it, but the truth of it.”

Amber Ferguson contributed to this report.