Prince Harry is dragged into bombshell $30M lawsuit against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Producer suing rapper over ‘sex-trafficking parties’ says star’s access to the Duke of Sussex and other celebrities boosted his ‘legitimacy’ as his mansions are raided
Prince Harry’s name appears in US court documents related to a $30million lawsuit claiming that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a sexual abuser of men and women, MailOnline can reveal today.
Record producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones’ filed the bombshell lawsuit against Diddy and claims that his ‘affiliation’ to the Duke of Sussex and other stars gave him and his associates ‘legitimacy’.
The court documents filed in the US last month do not suggest any wrongdoing on Prince Harry’s part. He is not a defendant and is named once in the 73-page document. MailOnline has asked the Duke of Sussex to comment.
Lil Rod’s lawyers claim guests were drawn to Diddy’s alleged sex-trafficking parties because of his ‘access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artist, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry’, court documents filed in New York say.
Prince William and Prince Harry met P Diddy and Kanye West at a post-concert party the Princes hosted to thank all who took part in the ‘Concert for Diana’ at Wembley Stadium’ in 2007. However, the Prince of Wales is not named in the court documents. It is not known how many times Harry has met the rapper since then, if at all.
While Harry is not facing a legal claim, it is not the first time the royals have been embroiled in serious court allegations in the US, with Prince Andrew forced to settle a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a sex slave of Jeffrey Epstein.
It came hours after Diddy’s Los Angeles and Florida mansions were raided by the Department of Homeland Security. Diddy was also seen looking tense as he was finally spotted at a Miami airport – after his private jet was tracked to Antigua but he wasn’t on it.
Combs, a billionaire, is already facing lawsuits from three women and has lost a host of commercial deals in the wake of the claims.
Links to stars helped Diddy build a reputation for ‘throwing the “best” parties’, the documents claim, and also made money for Diddy, his associates and businesses such as his record labels.
‘Lil Rod’, who produced nine songs on Diddy’s 2023 ‘The Love Album: Off the Grid’, says he was ordered to recruit prostitutes and have sex with them for the star’s pleasure at his parties. He also says the hip-hop mogul sexually assaulted him.
Jones claims that underage girls and sex workers were guests at the star’s house parties and that he saw the star drug their drinks. He also claims he has hundreds of hours of video documenting Combs’s ‘serious illegal activity’.
Jones has also named some of the industry’s biggest names as co-defendants in his $30million suit.
Diddy has denied the existing allegations against him, calling them ‘sickening’, and his lawyer dismissed Jones’s claims as ‘pure fiction’.
‘Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 billion lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday,’ attorney Shawn Holley told TMZ in February.
Combs recruited Jones in August 2022 to produce some of the songs on the R&B album ‘The Love Album: Off the Grid’ which was nominated for a Grammy after its release in September 2023.
‘Mr Jones agreed, and his life has been detrimentally impacted ever since,’ the lawsuit claims.
For more than a year he endured ‘constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus’, at Combs’ homes in Florida, Los Angeles and New York, as well as on a rented yacht in the US Virgin Islands.
Combs introduced him to Cuba Gooding Jr on the yacht where the actor allegedly began ‘touching, groping, and fondling Mr Jones’s legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks and his shoulders’.
He claims he was also sexually assaulted by a female cousin of Combs’s girlfriend Yung Miami and forced to watch a video of record producer Stevie J having sex with another man.
Jones was required to work in Combs’ bathroom where the star would shower naked behind a glass screen, according to the lawsuit.
The producer alleges Combs boasted of having shot people and threatened to inflict bodily harm if Jones did not comply with his demands.
He says the ‘forceful and demanding’ star privately admitted involvement in a 1999 nightclub shooting that saw him acquitted of gun possession and bribery charges.
‘Mr Combs consistently made it clear that he has immense power in the music industry and with law enforcement,’ the lawsuit claims.
Jones claims that underage girls and sex workers were guests at the star’s house parties and that he saw the star drug their drinks.
He also claims he was ordered to Miami trawl bars and nightspots to recruit sex workers, and says he himself was drugged in February last year before he woke up naked, dizzy and confused in bed with Combs and two sex workers.
His lawsuit also names Combs’ son Justin, his chief of staff Kristina Khorram, and Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grange as defendants.
It accuses Khorram of ‘grooming’ him on Combs’s behalf and claims that Motown Records, Love Records and Universal Music Group comprised a ‘Rico enterprise’ that ‘failed to adequately monitor, warn or supervise’ Combs and his inner circle.
Last year Diddy was accused of ‘savagely’ beating and raping his ex-girlfriend.
Sean Combs, the rapper known as Puff Daddy in the 1990s and later P. Diddy, is claimed in a lawsuit to have abused Casandra Ventura for a decade after he signed her to his label when she was 19.
Ms Ventura, 37, a singer who performs under the name Cassie, alleges Combs forced her to have sex with male prostitutes and that he filmed the encounters.
He is accused of blowing up a love rival’s car, plying her with drugs and raping her despite her pleas to stop, her lawsuit filed in New York claims.
Combs, 54, now simply called Diddy, is estimated to be worth $1billion (€917million) thanks to his partnership with vodka brand Ciroc. He is regarded as one of the most influential names in rap, best known for hits including I’ll Be Missing You and Last Night.
Ms Ventura says she was 19 when Combs, then 37, signed her to his record label, Bad Boy, in 2006. She claims Combs gave her drugs, including ecstasy and ketamine, soon after to make her ‘compliant’. Ms Ventura alleges that ‘all aspects of her life’ were controlled by Combs, including her medical records.
Among the alleged episodes of ‘intense violence’ was a beating in an SUV on the way home from a party with rapper Jay-Z.
On another occasion, a jealous Combs allegedly pulled Ms Ventura out of a club, ‘stomping on her face’, leaving her with injuries so bad she had to recover for a week in a hotel.
Perhaps the most disturbing claims are that Combs allegedly forced Ms Ventura to take part in drug-fuelled parties where she had sex with male prostitutes while wearing masquerade masks as he filmed it and performed a sex act on himself.
The lawsuit states: ‘Ms Ventura was repulsed by Mr Combs’ demands, but between the physical beating and recognising his incredible power and incredible temper, Ms
Ventura became petrified of her partner and boss, and felt that she could not say no.’
In another alleged incident, an enraged Combs dangled Ms Ventura’s friend over a 17th floor hotel balcony. It is also claimed he threatened to blow up the car of love rival, rapper Kid Cudi – which later exploded on his driveway, though it is unclear who was responsible. In September 2018, after Ms Ventura tried to break things off, Combs allegedly forced his way into her home and raped her.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages for sex trafficking, sexual battery, sexual assault and harassment. Combs denies the claims.