Danity Kane’s D. Woods and Aundrea Slam Diddy and Bad Boy Records (Exclusive)

For Danity Kane’s D. Woods and Aundrea Fimbres, the group’s 20-year reunion tour has become a moment to finally speak about what they once carried quietly behind the scenes. 

While speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Woods, 42, says she spent years “holding onto individually, and suffering in silence about” experiences that shaped her early career while working with Sean “Diddy” Combs under Bad Boy Records.

D. Woods and Fimbres — who wrapped their Untold Chapter Tour in celebration of their 20th anniversary — explain why now felt like the right time for a reunion tour along with Aubrey O’Day, 41.

“There were lots of things going on in the media,” Woods says. “Lots of things being aired out and exposed, and … kind of like the obstacles moved out of the way.”

“With those things having been exposed and moved out the way, the elephant in the room was removed, you know?” she continues. “Some of the things that were difficult … So we were like, ‘Ugh, all right. Well, now we can just do music, and we can actually write, rewrite the story and reclaim it.’ And that’s where the title came from, The Untold Chapter.”

Woods says “a lot of the things that came out” about Combs, now 56, “were not a surprise.”

“Unfortunately, it was very consistent with what we experienced. Even if we didn’t experience those things firsthand, the atmosphere was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, he acts like that. He does that. He talks to people like that. He talked to us like that.'”

Video released in May 2024, showed Combs physically assaulting his former girlfriend, singer Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, now 39, during a 2016 altercation that matches allegations she made in a now-settled lawsuit filed in November 2023.

“I made a comment about Cassie and I was like, ‘At least we had the five of us. Even though we weren’t the best of friends and on the same page all the time, at least we were the five of us,'” Woods says.

“She was a solo act. And we didn’t know what was going on. We had our own storms and our own challenges that we were — like everybody — just trying to survive and keep their head above water. So we didn’t have the time or the wherewithal to check in and be like, ‘Hey, somebody check on Cassie.'”

“We were all young and just trying to figure it out at the same time. Almost a little out of body experience, like you’re watching a movie about a group, but we were the people living [it],” Woods tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “We were on the couch, yelling at the TV, like, ‘No, girl, you need to call your lawyer.’ It was like we were doing that, but we couldn’t really do it because it was our own lives.”

For Fimbres, 42, agreeing to the tour required serious consideration.

“I definitely had some hesitations,” she says, noting that she hadn’t toured since getting married nearly 12 years ago. “Doing something like this … you have to make sure your stamina’s up. I just didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t up to par with the girls.”

“I’m married. I’m a stepparent,” Fimbres explains. “So it was a conversation that I had with both my husband and some of my family members… ‘Hey, I’m gonna be gone for a little bit… you guys are gonna have to keep up the house on your own, and make your own dinners!'” she says with a laugh.

Looking back at their early years in the industry, Fimbres tells PEOPLE the group’s lack of control stands out.

“With age obviously comes wisdom,” she says. “There’s a lot of things that aren’t really acceptable now — we wouldn’t have sleep for days. We weren’t being managed correctly.” At the time, she adds, “whatever they threw at us, we went with the flow — but now we have a lot more control, and that’s always nice.”

The group Danity Kane was formed on MTV’s Making the Band 3 when they signed to Combs’ Bad Boy Records. The group consisted of Woods, Fimbres, O’Day, Dawn Richard and Shannon Bex. In 2008, Combs removed O’Day and Woods from the group amid tension between himself and the performers.

In September 2024, former member Richard, now 42, filed a complaint in the New York federal court against Combs, alleging that he sexually and verbally abused her for nearly 10 years, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. She also claims that Combs owes her $3.5 million in “unpaid salaries and royalties” as well as “unpaid wages for touring on over 100 dates.”

Combs’ attorney, Erica Wolff, told PEOPLE in a statement at the time: “Mr. Combs is shocked and disappointed by this lawsuit. In an attempt to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour. If Ms. Richard had such a negative experience with Making the Band and Danity Kane, she would not have chosen to continue working directly with Mr. Combs for Dirty Money, nor would she have returned for the Making the Band reboot in 2020 or agreed to be featured on The Love Album last year. It’s unfortunate that Ms. Richard has cast their 20-year friendship aside to try and get money from him, but Mr. Combs is confidently standing on truth and looks forward to proving that in court.”

Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison after being convicted on two prostitution-related charges back in July. With credit for time served, he is expected to spend about three years behind bars.

The judge also sentenced him to five years of supervised release and imposed a $500,000 fine against him — the maximum fine allowable.

When Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced him, Combs had his head lowered, with his shoulders hunched and his hands clasped.

Prior to being sentenced, Combs apologized to his former girlfriends, friends and family, calling his behavior “disgusting, shameful and sick.” He said his children “deserve better,” and said that he’d failed his mother as a son.