John Legend’s Longtime Manager Recalls Chilling Situation at Diddy Party

Here we go, another Diddy party experience coming to light. John Legend’s manager, Ty Stiklorius, recently shared a “terrifying” experience she endured years ago at a New Year’s Eve yacht party hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs, revealing it as part of a broader “predatory culture” within the music industry. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Ty described how, during a holiday in the Caribbean 27 years ago, she and her brother attended the party on a yacht called the Dreamseeker. She recounted that an associate of Combs led her into a bedroom rather than the disco room as she had expected.

“To this day, I can’t remember how I managed to talk my way out of that terrifying situation,” she wrote, describing how her nervousness and mentioning her brother’s presence on the boat may have persuaded the man to release her.

Get this: while reflecting on recent news of Combs’ arrest on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and other allegations—charges he has denied—Ty explained how the incident served as an early indicator of a “pervasive culture in the music industry that actively fostered sexual misconduct.” She noted that, while initially seeing her experience as an isolated event, two decades in the industry have shown her otherwise.

In her chilling essay, Ty discussed the industry’s enduring issues with misconduct, calling it a place dominated by “kingmakers: wealthy, entitled, nearly always male gatekeepers” who use their positions to abuse power. She also challenged the view that high-profile cases like Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly were isolated, warning this framing “obscures the more damning, stubborn, systemic rot that had infected the music business.”

Moreover, Ty shared other difficult experiences in her career, including a dinner with a senior music executive who slid her his hotel key card, expecting her to follow him to his room. Despite such encounters, she said she chose to stay in the industry after an old college friend—John Legend—asked her to join his team, beginning a professional partnership that has lasted nearly two decades.

She closed her op-ed by expressing hope for change, urging the industry to “unearth the truth, encourage people to share their stories, and hold perpetrators accountable.” She added that the industry owes it to both survivors and the next generation to create “a culture worthy of the art they create.”