Kim Porter’s father is stepping forward to say he felt sickened when he saw Sean “Diddy” Combs shove, kick, stomp, and drag former partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a brutal beating that was captured on recently unearthed hotel surveillance video.
Speaking by phone on Friday, Jake Porter says the shocking video obtained by CNN left him with a nagging concern over what his daughter may have experienced during her time with the music mogul before she died of lobar pneumonia in 2018.
“You can say I was disgusted with the video, and I wouldn’t treat my enemy like that,” Porter, 78, exclusively tells Rolling Stone. “It was despicable,” he adds. “I couldn’t believe it. I was in Vietnam, and I wouldn’t do that to my enemy.”
Asked if he ever witnessed Combs physically abuse his own daughter in a similar way, Porter says “no,” he never saw anything “to that extent,” but “it made me wonder.” He recalls living with or near his daughter during different periods of her relationship with Combs dating back to the Nineties, and says the “horrible” video gives him a “different outlook” on Combs. “I didn’t know he could stoop that low,” Porter says. “I imagine it surprised a lot of people. I wouldn’t even do a dog like that. My heart goes out to Cassie.”
Porter declined to answer many questions but says his daughter Kim, who gave birth to a son with Combs in 1998 and twin daughters in 2006, genuinely loved the Bad Boy impresario. Still, she “just couldn’t live with” Combs in the same house, he says.
“I think he was a very jealous person,” Porter says. “They both loved each other. Kim’s love was legitimate. Puffy’s love, I don’t know what he calls love, you know what I mean? I really don’t think he has any idea what love is.” Moving forward, Porter says, “My concern is the children.”
As part of Rolling Stone’s recently published six-month investigation into Combs — which was based on interviews with more than 50 people across the hip-hop mogul’s life — sources claim that Combs was volatile, physically aggressive, and deeply controlling in his relationships.
The investigation started shortly after Ventura filed a stunning lawsuit against Combs last November alleging sex trafficking, sexual assault, and rape. Combs privately settled with Ventura within 24 hours, but six more lawsuits followed from other plaintiffs alleging sexual assault or rape.
Combs took responsibility for the hotel surveillance video, but limited his apology to that one incident. “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you gotta do that,” Combs said on social media. “I was fucked up, I mean I hit rock bottom, and I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, and I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. Had to go into therapy, go into rehab, had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry, but I’m committed to being a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
Asked for comment on the pending litigation and new allegations in the Rolling Stone investigation, Combs’ lawyer sidestepped a long list of individual questions. “Mr. Combs cannot comment on settled litigation, will not comment on pending litigation, and cannot address every allegation picked up by the press from any source, no matter how unreliable,” his lawyer, Jonathan Davis, said last week. “We are aware that the proper authorities are conducting a thorough investigation and therefore have confidence any important issues will be addressed in the proper forum, where the rules distinguish facts from fiction.”
Kim and Combs met while they were both working at Uptown Records. Combs was the brash young A&R executive and Kim was CEO Andre Harrell’s receptionist. They didn’t start dating until 1994. Their relationship was tumultuous, according to two sources who tell Rolling Stone that Combs physically abused Kim.
“I remember Kim used to go through a lot of stuff,” former Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry said. “If you live around them, you get to see the toxic relationship.… I think every relationship he had that I experienced around him was like that.”
Kim herself said that Combs was “very, very intrusive.” In an interview with Essence from 2007, she reflected on Combs’ flashy relationship with Jennifer Lopez, saying that despite the tabloid coverage of the couple, Combs was still calling her “50, 60 times a day.” “It was like my life was not my own,” she added.
Kim tried to move on, striking up a romance with the late music executive Shakir Stewart. But Combs caught wind of the relationship and was enraged. When the industry gathered for L.A. Reid’s wedding in Italy in the summer of 2000, Combs went to Stewart’s room after the ceremony and allegedly broke a chair over his head, Stewart’s mother and two of his close friends tell Rolling Stone. “He left him bleeding on a hotel floor in Italy,” Stewart’s mother, Portia, says. “He had to have stitches and then [Combs] threatened him … ‘I’m going to kill you’ … That’s when I said you need to get out of this business. This man is crazy.”
Kim eventually reunited with Combs, but she called off their romantic relationship for good in 2007 upon learning Combs had fathered a secret child while she was pregnant with their twin daughters.
