When magazine editor Amy DeBois was invited to one of P Diddy’s notorious white parties, she felt a thrill of excitement.
With a star-studded guest list and free-flowing champagne amid the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the rapper’s parties were legendary.
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But within hours of arriving, Amy felt something was terribly wrong.
“I don’t know that I even finished a glass of champagne that night because I was scared to lose control,” says the former editor-in-chief of Honey magazine.
“People thought it was acceptable to talk to me in a way that was very disrespectful. You know, they felt that it was acceptable to grab me or proposition me and to get angry when I would say no.
“There was a sort of undercurrent of danger. And I just remember feeling as if I wanted to keep my wits about me at all times.”
Amy was right to have her suspicions. Those infamous parties are now at the centre of Diddy’s ongoing sex crime case that got underway this week.
Victims say that behind the scenes, girls were recruited to ‘service’ favoured guests.
Adria English was hired as a go-go dancer at one of the parties. But it wasn’t long before she was being asked to have sex with guests and she now claims she was drugged.
She told a new Channel 4 documentary: “After the second or third party is when I got asked to do extra things more than dancing at the private white parties.
“He would bring me to people, sit me with certain people for me to entertain them. There were private areas and private rooms of that house that, you know, I had to walk people to, and then, you know, I was like, I believe drugged.
“We were drinking from certain champagne bottles where it was like your eyes were open but you were blacked out.
“And whatever it was that was in those drinks, it made you a zombie.
“My 20-something self thought, you know it was normal and this is what rich people do, this is how they party and this is the elite.”
Adria is now claiming coercion, sex trafficking and forced labour.
Diddy, real name Sean Combs, faces multiple charges including sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
The 55-year-old music mogul, once one of the most powerful figures in hip-hop, faces an avalanche of lawsuits by several women after R&B singer Cassie Ventura sued him for allegedly raping and physically abusing her.
Combs settled with Cassie within hours of her lawsuit and a video later emerged of him attacking her in a hotel hallway.
Power trip
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Now a lawyer representing the victims has revealed her firm received a staggering 25,000 calls after the footage was leaked.
Kasodie West said: “When the case surrounding Cassie came out, it kind of spiked my attention so that sparked us into doing (setting up) a sexual assault hotline.
“We had 25,000 calls that came in. From those we felt there were 40 complaints that absolutely fit the bill which have been filed (against Combs)”
“The profile of some of the survivors were minors. You don’t want to believe that that’s something that can happen to a child. It’s not necessarily about sexual preference but truly about power.”
Combs burst on to the hip-hop scene in the 90’s with his Bad Boy record label which signed artists like the Notorious B.I.G and Machine Gun Kelly.
Combs was with Biggie when he was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in March 1997.
Some of the alleged victims were minors – it was about power
lawyer Kasodie West
He capitalised on the murder by releasing a version of the song ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ dedicated to his pal – and it propelled Combs into the limelight.
His white parties at his Hamptons home became the stuff of legend with stars clamouring for an invite. Famous guests included Leo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Ivanka Trump Russell Brand and Mariah Carey.
There is no suggestion any of the celebrities were involved in any illegal activity.
Combs later went on to date Jennifer Lopez in 1999 but she was drawn into his circle of danger when he was accused of firing a gun at a New York nightclub, and a weapon was later found in the vehicle that J-Lo was travelling in.
Brit Rob Shuter, who worked as Combs’ publicist, said the star not only wanted his guests to wear white but liked them clean shaven, waxed and moisturised.
He said: “I was in charge of the guest list, it made me really powerful. One publicist offered me $10,000 cash to get their client in. Didn’t get in.”
Despite being in Combs’ inner circle, Rob says he was never aware of the sexual offences facing the rapper.
He said: “I don’t want to come across as naive, but I believe if stuff happened it was at an after party.
“I wish I knew. Diddy just didn’t con me. He conned you. He conned the entire world.”
Bruised ex-partner
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Combs’ former bodyguard Gene Deal tells the documentary he wasn’t aware of the sexual allegations – but then admits to seeing the rapper’s ex Kim Porter in a hospital bed with bruises.
He says he was called to a New York Hospital where he saw Kim, who dated Combs from 1994 to 1999, “with bruises on her face, she was really shook up.”
Gene says: “I knew something wasn’t right. But she’s at a hospital. There’s social workers, there’s police, there’s everything right there. I’m there to make sure nobody comes in and do anything to Puff.
“I asked her if she’s alright, she said, yeah, I’m fine. But there’s only so much that I can do.”
Deal says those around Combs would have never confronted him over his behaviour.
He said: “The knowledge that I had with Puff when he went in a room he always had if it was two girls, it was two boys you understand what I’m saying.
“And you know, I had to secure the outside of the room, make sure nobody bothered them when they doing grown folks s***.
“Let me tell you something. Anybody who’s telling you that they would say something to Puff had they known, is lying.
“If they were working for Puff, nine times out of ten, they wouldn’t have said jack to him. And that was real. And I’m sorry to say that.”
Kim Osario, ex-editor of The Source magazine, told how the hip-hop culture “made it possible for women to be mistreated.”
She said: “When everyone said, oh! clutch their pearls. How did we let this happen? No, no, we let it happen.
“You heard about it! I think, you know, part of the blame falls on us as a culture. Part of the blame falls on the on – even, you know, myself included – media because people want to protect their jobs, right. “
P Diddy’s law battle
The rapper faces federal charges as well as civil lawsuits.
Combs is charged with two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering.
Federal authorities claim Combs turned his “multi-faceted business empire” into a “criminal enterprise” in which he and his associates engaged in kidnapping, arson and physical violence, sex trafficking and forced labour, among other alleged crimes.
Those charges echo some of the allegations in the more than 70 civil lawsuits filed against the rapper
The claims of sexual abuse, drugging and physical assault span three decades.
If convicted of racketeering Combs could be jailed for life, while the minimum term for sex trafficking is 15 years.
He has denied all the charges against him.
Amy Dubois sums up the general feeling towards Diddy – regardless of sex charges – when she says: “Puff was a notorious assh***.
“You talked to anybody who worked for him and they’ve got all kinds of stories about his temper and demands.”
She adds: “You know after 25 years, there are still so few of us who are willing to hold the music industry and in urban culture accountable. And I think that that speaks volumes.
“There are a lot of women who did not make it out unscathed. There are a lot of women who didn’t make it out at all. You know, there are women who became addicted to drugs.
“There are women who committed suicide. And it was devastating to watch. You know, as much fun as we were having, as much as we were dancing to these misogynistic lyrics, there were women whose lives were forever impacted by the culture”
Combs did not respond to the Channel 4 show but has previously denied all charges and offences against him.
His legal representatives have said he “looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court.”
In May 2024 he addressed social media about the attack on Cassie, calling it “inexcusable”, adding: “I was disgusted when I did it. I’m disgusted now..I went out and sought professional help…I’m truly sorry.”
His lawyers said of the claims by Adria English: “Anyone can file a lawsuit without proof – this case is a clear example of that.”
A spokesman for Combs said: “
A spokesperson for Mr Combs has previously said that allegations of wrongdoing at his parties were unfounded.
They said: “Sean Combs’ white parties and other events were iconic, a true convergence of hip-hop, Hollywood and Black excellence.
“It’s disappointing to see the media and social commentators twist these cultural moments into something they were not, taking video clips and photos out of context, and trying to link these events to false allegations.”
UNTOLD presents Diddy: In Plain Sight is available on Channel 4 from tomorrow.