Piers Morgan's wife says she now sees "sinister" things in a 2008 encounter she had with hip hop mogul Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs following the string of allegations facing him.
Celia Walden says that her assessment that Combs was “just plain shy” makes her want to actively “squirm.” The rap mogul was arrested last month in New York and later charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transportation and engaging in prostitution.
Representatives for the platinum-selling rapper have repeatedly stressed that he "never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone - man or woman, adult or minor".
But 16 years after meeting the man she describes as “a philanderer, a narcissist and a control freak”, Celia Walden told the Daily Telegraph that some of P Diddy’s actions on that day “have taken on sinister new meanings”.
She writes: "'It comes as a surprise to realise that P Diddy is just plain shy". Reading back over a 2008 interview I did with disgraced music mogul Sean "P Diddy" Combs wasn't a comfortable experience, but this reflection actively made me squirm."
She claims she choked on “industrial-strength” cocktail handed to her on Diddy’s yacht, eliciting laughter from the star, and how acutely aware she was that Combs “clearly wasn't wearing any underwear beneath his white trousers”.
She also explains how she sensed the profound trauma that came from his upbringing in Harlem. Combs lost his father when he was just three years old, as a result of a drug-related shooting.
In the 2008 interview, he said that he could understand why some would – as his father did – get involved in the criminal underworld: “I don't know why anyone would do something where they know that the outcome is going to be death or jail. If you don't care about yourself then at least do it for your mother, and try to imagine how she will feel.”
Combs, who was 38 at the time, was riding high on the success of multiple film and TV appearances, alongside his catalogue of big-selling records. He told Walden that he felt "totally jaded” and had few ambitions left to fulfil.
There was only one person he still wanted to meet. He said: "The Queen of England. I don't know why I've never met her.She’s never invited me to the palace - not yet, anyway."
Combs was arrested in September and is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York. His lawyer, Erica Wolff, has said that her client is looking forward to "proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court."
English (US) ·