Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs‘ lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist to Netflix, claiming that 50 Cent‘s new docuseries about the disgraced artist uses “stolen” footage.
The four-part show, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was released on the streaming platform today (Tuesday December 2). It was first reported that 50 Cent – real name Curtis Jackson – was working on the doc in 2023. He serves as an executive producer on the project, which was directed by Alex Stapleton.
An official description reads: “This documentary series unpacks the shocking allegations behind Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and his Bad Boy empire, spanning decades of his life and career.”
As CNN reports, Combs’ lawyers issued Netflix with a cease-and-desist letter on the eve of The Reckoning‘s premiere.
In a statement to the outlet, a spokesperson for Combs accused the streaming giant of using “stolen footage that was never authorised for release”. They also described the docuseries as a “shameful hit piece”.
The footage that Combs’ representative was referring to is included in the official trailer for the programme.
“We need to find somebody that’ll work with us that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirty business,” Combs says at the start of the one-minute clip. “We are losing.”
Combs’ spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, said Combs had been continuously filming himself for decades to chronicle his life for a future documentary.
“Sean was making his own documentary since he was 19 years old. This footage was commissioned as part of it,” Engelmayer said in an email to CNN.
He claimed that the footage seen in Netflix’s trailer, which was filmed six days before Combs’ September 2024 arrest, was intended for that long-running project.
The spokesperson alleged that neither Combs nor his team had watched the Netflix series in advance. “We will see it tonight. Neither Netflix, nor Mr. Jackson were kind enough to offer us a screener,” Engelmayer said.
A spokesperson for Netflix responded by referring to a statement from director Stapleton, the latter of whom claimed that her team had obtained the footage legally. “It came to us. We obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” she said.
“We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades.”
Stapleton added: “We also reached out to Sean Combs’ legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.”
In Combs’ statement on The Reckoning, his team claimed that Netflix and its CEO, Ted Sarandos, were aware that Diddy “has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way”.
“It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work,” they added.
Combs’ team went on to say that it was “equally staggering” that the platform had worked with Jackson for the documentary. They claimed that 50 Cent is “a longtime adversary” of Diddy’s, “with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs”.
They threatened to take further legal action in their cease-and-desist letter: “As you are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Combs has not hesitated to take legal action against media entities and others who violate his rights, and he will not hesitate to do so against Netflix.”
The rapper previously filed a $100million defamation suit against NBCUniversal for a documentary about him that aired on Peacock this year, Diddy: The Making Of A Bad Boy.
An official synopsis for Sean Combs: The Reckoning reads: “Who is the real Sean Combs? In a new four-part documentary by Emmy and Grammy Award–winning executive producer Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson and Emmy Award-winning director Alexandria Stapleton, Sean Combs: The Reckoning is a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend, and convicted offender.
“Through explosive, never-before-seen materials, including exclusive interviews with those formerly in his orbit, this documentary tells the story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built – and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface.”
Earlier this year, Combs was sentenced to four years and two months in prison following his conviction on federal prostitution-related charges. A judge said a “substantial sentence” was required to “send a message to abusers and victims alike that abuse against women is met with real accountability”.
In July, 12 New Yorkers acquitted the music mogul of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, which carried a potential life sentence. They did, however, find him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution involving his two ex-girlfriends, Cassandra Ventura and “Jane”.
