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Sean “Diddy” Combs apologized for his crimes and misdeeds in a letter to a judge on Thursday, where he pleaded for a merciful sentence.
In the letter, obtained by HuffPost, the media mogul insisted that he has become a changed man after spending time at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been detained since September 2024.
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“First and foremost, I want to apologize and say how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused others by my conduct. I take full responsibility and accountability for my past wrongs. This has been the hardest 2 years of my life, and I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself,” Combs’ letter read.
He then brought up his ex, singer-songwriter Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, with whom he had been together for roughly a decade. Ventura filed a groundbreaking and quickly settled lawsuit accusing Combs of rape and abuse in November 2023, paving the way for a litany of other accusers to come forward and lead to his eventual indictment and trial. Combs was also captured on surveillance video footage abusing Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway.
“I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved,” he said. “My domestic violence will always be a heavy burden that I will have to forever carry. The remorse, the sorrow, the regret, the disappointment, the shame. I honestly feel sorry for something that I couldn’t forgive someone else for: if they put their hands on one of my daughters.”
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Combs says he’s now sober for the first time in 25 years and that he is leading a six-week program called “Free Game,” in which he offers insights about his mistakes and how to become a “successful business man” to a diverse group of incarcerated individuals at the jail.
He claims that there haven’t been any fights in the unit since he started the class.
“I ask you for mercy today, not only for my sake, but for the sake of my children,” he pleaded, adding that he no longer cares about fame or money. “More than anything, I just want the opportunity to return home and be the father that they need and deserve.”
He also swore that he would never commit any other crimes.
Combs’ letter stands in stark contrast to that of Ventura’s.
“For four days in May, while nine months pregnant with my son, I testified in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life,” Ventura’s letter to the judge read. “I testified that from age nineteen, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse. He groomed me into performing repeated sex acts with hired male sex workers during multi-day ‘freak-offs,’ which occurred nearly weekly.”
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Ventura also added that she lives her life “as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”
Combs’ family members and many others also sent letters to the judge asking for a light sentence.
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A jury found Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, a charge that has a maximum 10-year sentence. He was found not guilty of his sex trafficking and racketeering charges. which carried heftier sentences.
Combs’ sentencing is set for Friday, Oct. 3. Prosecutors are asking the judge to sentence him for at least 11 years.