Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been ordered to pay legal fees after unsuccessfully suing US television network NBC over the 2025 documentary The Making of a Bad Boy.
A court order, obtained by Billboard, states that Combs must repay the $478,000 (£361,000) that NBC spent convincing a judge to dismiss the defamation lawsuit earlier this year.
Combs sued NBC in early 2025 for $100 million (£75 million), alleging The Making of a Bad Boy advanced a “false narrative” that he was involved in the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and Kim Porter.
Judge Phaedra F. Perry-Bond ruled in April that NBC had followed the proper journalistic standards by making clear that Combs denies all such claims and that the interviewees who voiced the theories had their own biases against the now-imprisoned mogul.
The judge threw out Combs’ lawsuit under New York’s anti-SLAPP statute, which quickly disposes of meritless cases that threaten First Amendment-protected free speech.
Under that law, a successful defendant can recoup the legal fees that they spent in the process.
The judge ruled that NBC qualifies for attorney fee reimbursement in this situation.
However, he did find that the number of hours billed by legal firm Gibson Dunn was “excessive”, and trimmed a total of $512,000 (£386,000) from the original $990,000 (£747,000) bill.
Combs is currently serving prison time for arranging cross-country prostitution events. He’s appealing the sentence, arguing it was unduly harsh.
Meanwhile, the Bad Boy Records founder still faces dozens of ongoing civil sexual misconduct lawsuits, in which he denies all wrongdoing.
