Amid Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal issues, various people who’ve had personal dealings with him over the years have spoken out about their experiences. 50 Cent, Suge Knight and Nick Cannon are just a few of the people who’ve discussed the music mogul, who’s currently serving a four-year (or 50 month) sentence in prison. A few members of Danity Kane (the girl group Combs helped form) have also shared their stories. More recently, veteran member D. Woods reflected on Diddy’s interactions with his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
D. Woods, who recently reunited with some of her fellow group members for a brief reunion tour, spoke to People alongside bandmate Aundrea Fimbres. Amid the wide-ranging interview, Woods touched upon Danity Kane’s roots and her interactions with Diddy. Woods also weighed in on the revelations of abuse involving Cassie Ventura (mononymously known as Cassie) that have cropped over the past few years. Thinking back to the earlier days of her career, Woods expressed regret over not checking on Cassie more:
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. 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.'
Cassie and Combs were in an on-and-off relationship between 2007 and 2018 and appeared in public together on numerous occasions throughout that time. In 2023, Cassie filed suit against Combs, claiming that he subjected her to violence, sex-trafficking and more, and the suit was settled less than 24 hours after the filing. The following year would mark the release of a 2016 video of Combs assaulting Cassie in a hotel. Combs later apologized for his actions, though his remarks were criticized and deemed disingenuous.
Diddy was eventually arrested in September 2024 and eventually went on trial in 2025. Amid the court proceedings, various people, including Cassie, took to the stand to testify against the rapper, who was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. D. Woods didn’t take the stand and, during her recent interview, she summed up her own experiences working with the Sean John figurehead:
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]. 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.
D. Woods was selected to join Danity Kane in 2005 at the end of Making the Band 3’s second season. She joined the group alongside Aubrey O’Day, Aundrea Fimbres, Shannon Bex and Dawn Richard (who also filed suit against Combs for alleged abuse). Woods was fired by Combs himself in 2008 alongside O’Day. For her part, O’Day has also talked about Diddy and got particularly candid about him while being interviewed for the docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
As for Diddy himself, he’s currently behind bars at the New Jersey-based FCI Fort Dix and is set to be released in the summer of 2028 While the “I’ll Be Missing You” performer continues his prison stint, it remains to be seen whether other former collaborators will weigh in like D. Woods, Aubrey O’Day and others have.
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