A spokesperson for Netflix has defended its docuseries on Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs after his team dubbed it a “shameful hit piece”.
A representative for the hip-hop star, who is serving a four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges, denounced the four-part series, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, claiming it features stolen footage.
They also blasted the team for giving “creative control” to “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta”, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, who executive-produced the project.
In response, a spokesperson for Netflix insisted that the claims made about the project are false.
“The project has no ties to any past conversations between Sean Combs and Netflix,” reads the statement to Variety. “The footage of Combs leading up to his indictment and arrest were legally obtained. This is not a hit piece or an act of retribution. Curtis Jackson is an executive producer but does not have creative control. No one was paid to participate.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning focuses on the sexual misconduct allegations made against Combs since late 2023, and features never-before-seen footage of the I’ll Be Missing You hitmaker and his inner circle.
Ahead of its release on Tuesday, Combs’s rep claimed that the programme “relied on stolen footage that was never authorised for release” and that it was “fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate” video that he has been accumulating since he was 19.
Director Alexandria Stapleton previously insisted that all footage was obtained legally and with the necessary rights.
“We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential,” she told Netflix’s Tudum. “One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades.”
The incarcerated music mogul has denied all of the allegations against him. While he was found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution, he was acquitted of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
