Ella Scott
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ former protégé Aubrey O’Day has issued a statement following his sentencing for transportation to engage in prostitution.
On Friday (October 3), P. Diddy was handed 50 months behind bars and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine by Judge Arun Subramanian inside the US District Courthouse in lower Manhattan.
The hip-hop mogul, convicted of flying people across the US for sexual encounters he called ‘freak-offs', apologized to two former girlfriends who accused him of physical and sexual abuse: singer Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura and a woman identified in court under the pseudonym ‘Jane.’
In July, a 12-person jury acquitted the 55-year-old of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
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Aubrey O'Day, a musician whom Combs mentored as part of Danity Kane until she was fired from the band by Combs in 2008, has spoken out following the conclusion of the court case.
The 41-year-old met him during his MTV show, Making the Band, and was later signed to his label, Bad Boy Entertainment.
Taking to X, O’Day issued a warning to any young, aspiring musician, claiming their wellbeing is ‘worth more than any opportunity’.
“The true warning is not that a jury may doubt your testimony, nor that a court’s sentencing guidelines may fail to reflect the years of suffering you endured,” she typed.
“The real warning is this: the moment someone in a position of power oversteps your boundaries or demands more than is legitimately required of you, walk away and do not look back.
“No dream, however bright, can outweigh the pain and exploitation that may follow if you remain. Too often, those who misuse their power, even when exposed, face far fewer consequences than the harm inflicted upon their victims.
“Protect yourself at the first sign of coercion or impropriety. If something feels wrong, trust that instinct and remove yourself from the situation. Your well-being is worth more than any opportunity.”
Fans have come out in droves to support the Broadway actress, with one writing: "I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now, Aubrey. Sending you all the love and light in the world. God is good - keep that thought at the forefront of your mind and draw strength from it.”
A second typed: “I'm praying and hoping that you are doing OK and praying for your health and well-being and your safety.”
In September 2024, the Celebrity Big Brother star alleged Combs ‘groomed’ and controlled her image during Making the Band.
During an appearance on the Crysis Queen podcast, O’Day claimed the ‘Last Night’ singer once sent her out of the studio because her toes weren’t properly polished.
She also claimed that she was ‘multiple sides’ of the star and alleged he stopped her from forming a bond with a ‘certain very big name person’.
“That was the first time [Combs] had kinda said, ‘You’re not allowed to be around that person ever again,” she recalled. “And that was the first time I started to see the dynamics change with just how he approached me on camera.”
In August, O’Day told Decider that when she’d publicly challenged Combs, ‘physical danger’ became a ‘reality’ for her.
“Obviously, I've known about this behavior for a very long time,” she alleged. “I've been warning everyone for about 20 years now that this is not a safe person to work with.
"It just was falling on deaf ears because no one wanted to hear me saying it.”
She added that while she did not know ‘how much danger’ she was ever in, she did notice ‘suspicious’ activity around her.
“I know how to look for certain things based off of certain things that I've had to learn in life, and there were unmarked cars around me for a bit that seemed suspicious,” she added.
Despite claiming to have been ‘contacted’ by Homeland Security, O’Day did not take the stand against her former mentor when she was in New York City in May.
In the first episode of iHeart Radio's Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present: Aubrey O'Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, she told the hosts: “No, I’m not here to testify for the Diddy trial, that I know of.”
She went on to say she ‘was contacted by Homeland Security’ and ‘did have a meeting with Homeland Security.’
If O’Day had testified, she would’ve been the second member of Danity Kane to do so after 41-year-old Dawn Richard.
UNILAD has contacted a representative for Diddy for comment.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org