Grammy nominee Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will not attend ceremony amid sexual assault claims

Music mogul is up for Best Progressive R&B Album

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will not attend the 2024 Grammy Awards in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations, all of which he denies.

The rapper and music mogul, 54, is nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album at this year’s ceremony for his record The Love Album: Off the Grid.

It is Combs’s first time competing for a Grammy since 2004 when he won Best Rap Performance By A Group or Duo for “Shake Ya Tailfeather” with Nelly and Murphy Lee.

However, a representative for the musician told The Hollywood Reporter that he had no plans to attend the awards show at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on 4 February.

Combs is currently facing multiple sexual assault allegations.

Last month, he issued a public statement after a fourth woman in recent weeks filed a lawsuit against him, alleging sexual abuse and trafficking.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs performing during the MTV VMAS in 2023 (Getty Images for MTV)

On 6 December, an unnamed woman filed a lawsuit accusing Combs and two others of sex trafficking and rape.

Combs is accused alongside his longtime collaborator and former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre, and a third unidentified man of allegedly “gang raping” a 17-year-old girl inside Combs’s recording studio in Manhattan in 2003.

According to Rolling Stone, the suit states that “Jane Doe”, then a high school student, was trafficked across state lines and plied with “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol”.

In response to the new legal action, Combs issued a passionate denial of the crimes he’d been accused of in a statement to the music publication, as well as in a post on Instagram.

He wrote: “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth,” Combs concluded.

Lawyer Douglas H. Wigdor filed the new lawsuit on behalf of “Jane Doe” after he previously represented R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in her complaint against Combs last month, which accused him of serial sexual assault and trafficking.

Combs and Ventura settled the suit the day after it was filed. Ben Brafman, an attorney for Combs, told The Independent at the time: “Just so we’re clear, a decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing. Mr Combs‘ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms. Ventura the best.”

In November, Combs stepped down from his position as chairman of the television network Revolt after three sexual assault lawsuits were filed against him in a week.

He had co-founded the music-focused network with Andy Schuon in 2013.