Combs, 55, is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, while he awaits trial.
The rapper was arrested at a hotel in Manhattan in September before being charged with racketeering and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
Combs has denied the allegations against him and issued a plea of not guilty after he was accused of using his ‘power and prestige’ to drug sex workers for his alleged ‘freak-offs’.
One person who has previously recalled an encounter with Combs is Spice Girls singer Mel B, who spoke about her experience in her book, Brutally Honest, back in 2018.
“People think I am so tough, and to some degree I am. I can stand my ground against the likes of Sean ‘P. Diddy’ ‘Puffy’ Combs, who – back in 1998, when I’d been asked to host the MOBO Awards in London – wouldn’t get off the stage to let me start my rehearsals for the show. I had to perform as well as host the show,” she wrote.
“He’d turned up with a massive entourage and then run into my rehearsal time with the clock ticking less than an hour before the doors were due to open. I was watching, fuming, as he said he wanted another run-through. I marched out towards him. ‘No, I need to rehearse my song NOW,’ I said.”
Mel B at the MOBO Awards in 1998 (JMEnternational/Getty Images)
Mel claimed that Combs ‘didn’t even look at [her]’ but instead called her a very offensive name.
“He didn’t even look at me, just raised his mic and said, ‘Get this bitch off the stage’,” she continued.
“I was livid. This was a British show, and we don’t behave like that over here. No one has the right to say that about anyone. I went up and poked him in the shoulder. ‘What did you say? Get WHAT off the stage?’
“He tried to ignore me, so I said, ‘Listen, I’m introducing you tonight, so I’d be nice if I were you. The doors are opening in ten minutes. I need to rehearse. Can you get off the f**king stage!'”
Combs was also performing at the awards (JMEnternational/Getty Images)
Mel ended up getting her rehearsal and also a ‘peace offering’ from the rapper, who allegedly gifted her a rather unusual item of clothing.
“I got my rehearsal, and about half an hour later one of his bouncers turned up in my dressing room with a peace offering – a jacket with P. Diddy’s name splashed all over it. It looked like a bloody cagoule,” she recalled.
“There’s no way I’d be walking around with his name on my back. ‘Thanks,’ I said with a fake smile, then I threw it back at the bouncer. I wanted to send a message back. Nobody has the right to treat anyone like that. And some crummy jacket was not an acceptable apology.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.