10 Shocking Bombshells from ‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’

Fans saw a new side of a once-untouchable hip-hop mogul in Sean Combs: The Reckoning.

The four-part Netflix docuseries, released on Dec. 2, chronicled the rise of Bad Boy Entertainment founder and Grammy-winning rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs — and how he allegedly used his success to violently terrorize those in his inner circle.

“If I didn’t say anything, you would interpret it as hip-hop is fine with his behaviors,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who produced the docuseries, told Good Morning America in December 2025. “There’s no one else being vocal.”

In addition to never-before-seen footage of Combs in the days before his September 2024 arrest for sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution (he was acquitted of the former two charges in July 2025), The Reckoning featured more disturbing allegations against the “I’ll Be Missing You” artist. Friends and former associates claimed to have witnessed his long history of coercion, threats and abuse firsthand.

As Bad Boy Entertainment co-founder Kirk Burrowes put it in the series, “With Sean, sometimes you’re humiliated. Sometimes you’re made an example of. Sometimes violent things happen to you. Through the years, a lot of bad things happened to good friends.”

A spokesperson for Combs — who was sentenced to 50 months in prison with time served for two prostitution-related charges in October 2025 — called The Reckoning “a one-sided narrative led by a publicly admitted adversary.”

“Several of these stories have already been addressed in court filings, and others were never raised in any legal forum because they’re simply not true,” Juda Engelmayer said in a statement. “[The project] repeats allegations without context, evidence, or verification.”

Here are the 10 biggest bombshells revealed in Sean Combs: The Reckoning.

Comb’s mother was accused of “physically harming” him

Tim “Dawg” Patterson, a childhood friend of Combs’, claimed that he witnessed the rapper get physically abused by his mother, Janice Combs.

“His beatings made me scared,” he said in The Reckoning. “I got beatings, now. But when he got his beatings it wasn’t no … It wasn’t a joking thing. No.”

The docuseries included a statement that said Combs’ mother was contacted about the allegations that she “physically harmed” her son, but she did not respond.

Combs allegedly physically assaulted his ex, Misa Hylton

In The Reckoning, Burrowes said that he once saw Combs allegedly “beating” his then-girlfriend, Misa Hylton, “into the car well” outside of Uptown Records. The former Bad Boy Entertainment co-owner claimed that she was on the ground and that the rapper only stopped when people pulled “him off of her.”

Combs and Hylton continued to date and welcomed a son together, Justin Combs, in December 1993, a year after the alleged assault. She has not commented on the assault allegation.

He allegedly attempted to avoid paying the victims of the 1991 City College Stampede

In December 1991, Combs organized a celebrity basketball game at City College of New York in New York City. The event was oversold, and thousands of people rushed the gymnasium doors, causing a stampede that left nine people dead, per CNN.

No one was ever held criminally responsible for the tragedy, and Burrowes alleged in The Reckoning that Combs purposely did not own Bad Boy Entertainment when it was created in 1993 to avoid paying the victims.

“Sean gave me 25% in stock, and his mother, Janice, had 75%,” Burrowes said in the docuseries. “He did not put the company in his name to protect him from paying families at CCNY. And I saw from that moment on, Sean had shifted in his personality.”

In 1998, Combs paid $750,000 of a $3.8 million lawsuit to settle wrongful death suits from the City College Stampede victims’ families, per The New York Times.

A Crips member claimed Combs put a $1 million hit out on Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight

On Sept. 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The 25-year-old rapper’s murder remained unresolved for decades, until police arrested and charged Duane “Keefe D” Davis with the killing.

The Reckoning included recordings of a 2008 interview Davis did with police, in which he claimed that Combs allegedly agreed to pay the South Side Crips gang $1 million to kill Shakur and Death Row Records producer Suge Knight. He put out the alleged hit following an escalating beef between East Coast and West Coast rappers, and Shakur’s diss track “Hit Em Up.”

Though Davis claimed he was supposed to be paid $500,000 for Shakur’s murder — half of the original payment because Knight survived the shooting — he alleged he was never compensated. He was later charged with one count of murder with a gang enhancement in the fatal shooting and has remained in custody awaiting trial since September 2023.

Combs has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Combs allegedly made Biggie return to L.A., knowing it was dangerous

After Shakur’s murder, Los Angeles became a dangerous place for Combs and his East Coast associates — including Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. Despite the warning signs, Burrowes alleged in The Reckoning that the producer convinced the rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, to go there to promote his new album.

“Biggie didn’t want to go, but Sean talked him into doing all those things,” the Bad Boy Entertainment co-founder said, adding that Combs even canceled a trip Biggie had planned for London to extend his stay in L.A. “All of it because Sean wanted to do a party on enemy turf.”

Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997. No one has ever been arrested or charged for his murder, per Rolling Stone.

Combs charged Biggie’s N.Y.C. funeral to his estate 

Burrowes also alleged in the docuseries that Combs footed the bill for Biggie’s massive N.Y.C. funeral to the late rapper’s estate.

“We start to put that together, he starts to see the price,” his business partner said in The Reckoning. “He says, ‘We’re gonna do the biggest funeral, but Biggie’s gonna have to pay for this funeral.’ ”

Combs allegedly did this by making the funeral “a recoupable charge to Biggie in death.” Burrowes added, “Sean doing a big show looks good on him. But he’s not gonna tell the world that Biggie was gonna pay for it.”

Aubrey O’Day alleged that Combs might have assaulted her

Former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day revealed in The Reckoning that Combs allegedly may have sexually assaulted her.

The singer, who appeared in his competition series Making the Band 3, said she received an affidavit from another alleged victim of the producer’s that claimed she witnessed him and another man allegedly assaulting O’Day at Bad Boy studios. The unnamed woman said that O’Day was “out of it” and partially clothed during the incident.

“Does this mean I was raped?” the former Dainty Kane member said in the docuseries. “Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped, and I don’t want to know.”

O’Day also shared sexually explicit emails from Combs that he allegedly sent her while she was in Danity Kane, and claimed that she was fired from the group “for not participating sexually.”

Combs planned to move $200 million days before his arrest

The doc contains footage shot days before Diddy’s arrest as the musician hired a videographer to follow him at the time.

In the clip, Combs is on the phone with Dana Tran, the mother of his youngest child, telling her that he was “about to deposit $200 million.”

“I feel good,” he told her. “They’re holding the bank open for me, you feel me?”

He allegedly held “freak offs” on Biggie’s death anniversary 

Former escort Clayton Howard told The Reckoning filmmakers that Combs held one of his “freak offs” — elaborate, drug-fueled sexual performances that the producer allegedly orchestrated and coerced others to participate in — every year on Biggie’s death anniversary.

“I don’t know if that was his release for that day or whatever,” he said of the three-to-four-day events, “but they always called me on March 9.”

Diddy’s son allegedly participated in the “freak offs”

Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones — who accused Combs of sexual harassment and assault in February 2024 — said he witnessed the producer’s son, Justin, attend the “freak offs.”

“They would be doing these freak offs and it would be Puff and Justin in the room with multiple women, closed doors and lots of music and lots of drugs,” he claimed in The Reckoning.

Justin has yet to comment on the allegation.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.