Four women have sued Combs in recent months, all alleging that he sexually assaulted them
Sean “Diddy” Combs will not attend the Grammy Awards this year, a rep for the rapper told The Hollywood Reporter, with Combs sitting out for music’s biggest night as he faces several allegations of sexual abuse.
A rep for Combs did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Combs received a nomination for Best Progressive R&B album for the 2023 project The Love Album: Off The Grid in November, shortly before R&B singer Cassie accused him of sexually assaulting her in a lawsuit filed in New York. Cassie and Combs settled the suit out of court a day later, but three more women subsequently came forward, filing sexual abuse lawsuits as well, including a woman who alleged that Combs and record executive Harve Pierre gang-raped her when she was 17 years old. Songwriter and advocate Tiffany Red, a friend of Cassie’s, published an open letter in Rolling Stone seeking to corroborate Cassie’s claims. Combs has denied the allegations.
Nominees typically get invited to the ceremony shortly after the nominations are announced. A month ago, the Recording Academy said in a statement that the organization was evaluating Combs’ invite to the Grammys. “We are taking this matter very seriously and we are in the process of evaluating it with the time and care that it deserves,” a Recording Academy rep said in a statement.
Whether or not Combs would attend the show or if he’d keep his nominations were two prominent questions heading into this year’s Grammy Awards. Pulling the nomination was unlikely given the Academy’s own history of how it has handled controversial nominations.
In 2021, Marilyn Manson and Louis C.K., who were both previously accused of sexual misconduct, received Grammy nominations. The Academy didn’t pull those nominations, and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told The Wrap that the Grammys “won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration. We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria.”