Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegations: Former hip-hop dancer speaks out about the industry – ‘They share women. They share secrets’
“What Sean Combs is being accused of is not rare. He’s not an anomaly.”
For a year in the early noughties, Elisabeth Ovesen was a hip-hop video star dancing alongside some of the biggest names in the business. It was an era of big-budget music videos filled with, in rap especially, money, cars, and women.
She kept diaries. In 2005, she published Confessions Of A Video Vixen, recounting her difficult upbringing and relationships before finding a seemingly glamorous lifeline to financial security.
Under the name Karrine Steffans, she detailed her experiences on video sets as a 22-year-old woman, her relationships and sexual encounters with rappers, other music stars and executives. Most of her own experiences involving famous stars were consensual, she says; the book is a cautionary tale about a feted industry, her stories highlighting misogyny and power imbalances in terms of age and status, how women were used and discarded, rather than criminal behaviour.
But Ovesen says she was also aware of a much darker side to the music industry, and Hollywood in general.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement – and most recently the charges filed in the US against rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, which he has strenuously denied – she says she wants people to know there are others “getting away” with similar behaviour and crimes.
Her words echo those of lawyer Tony Buzbee, who has filed several lawsuits against Combs. He has also claimed A-listers are paying off victims to avoid being publicly named.
Pic: AP
‘Everything that’s coming out wasn’t a secret’
Speaking to Sky News on Zoom, Ovesen recounts the night she first met Combs, saying she was “kind of ordered” to his house. Despite this, in hindsight, being a “weird” experience, she says he treated her well and with respect. “We’re at a club, I was with people he knew, our cars were leaving at the same time,” she says. Combs leaned out of a window to talk to the men in her car, “talking about me like I’m property”.
The men decided she would go to his house, she says. “It was kind of like, ‘send her’. In retrospect now I realise how weird that is.”
She says this was shortly after Combs’ break-up with Jennifer Lopez in 2001. “He was very sweet and very docile with me and very respectful. The next morning we had brunch at his house… again, [he was] pleasant, warm.” She says she went to other parties with Combs and he was always the same.
But he knew she kept diaries, she claims. “So my experiences with him are a lot different than hundreds of other people’s… I have seen him flare up. I have seen things that did not involve me.”
These are not her stories to tell, she says. “I don’t want to overshadow actual victims. I’m nobody’s victim.”
However, Ovesen says she became aware of the hip-hop star’s alleged behaviour, his abuse of former girlfriend Cassie, which he publicly apologised for, and the claims of “freak-off” parties detailed in the charges against him.
“I knew what kind of person he was to other people. Everything that’s coming out now about Sean wasn’t a secret… him and Cassie, that was an open secret in LA, in the industry. Everyone knew. The issue with something like that is that if someone says, ‘yeah, I was there, I’ve seen it. I know for sure’. Then the question becomes, well, what were you doing there?”
Elisabeth Ovesen, formerly known as Karrine Steffans, pictured after the release of the book, in 2006. Pic: JSSImages/BEImages
Misogyny and abuse in the hip-hop industry, and in the wider music industry – Hollywood in general – is rife, Ovesen says.
“If we’re looking at this one person and the industry this person is in, now let’s look at all the men who are not saying anything at all,” she says. “I want to be very clear that what Sean is being accused of is not rare. He’s not an anomaly… the behaviour is learned and perpetuated.”
Ovesen says some men she knew from the industry at the time had a family home – “and then there’s a party house”. Drugs were rife, she says, and she witnessed heroin, cocaine and crack being taken “by prominent celebrity men”.
Women are treated as objects and often suffer sexual abuse, she says. Some men too, and under-age boys and girls, she claims.
Artists “have the same agents, the same managers, the same handlers, the same accountants… they have the same friends. They share jets. They use each other’s houses. They share women. They share secrets. It’s not [just] a Sean Combs problem, it is a worldwide issue. It’s about men with money, men with power.”
When Ovesen arrived in LA, she was looking for dancing work. Being “discovered” for music videos, with payment of thousands of dollars for a day or two on set, would set her up. But she says she was never naïve about the industry and also acknowledges that a lot of her experiences were “fun”.
“I always knew what it was. I always knew why I was there. Women were being used as props and to make the men look good, and we were disposable and not treated with respect, for the most part. But coming from my particular background – having been an exotic dancer – that didn’t deter me or bother me at the time.”
Ovesen’s book, Confessions Of A Video Vixen, published by Harper Collins
CCTV cameras and NDAs
This is no longer Ovesen’s world, she points out. She has published several books since her first, and has also given lectures about her experiences. However, she says she has friends in the industry who say things haven’t changed.
She claims she went to house parties and woke to “screaming in the middle of the night – women being beaten, slapped, pushed around”, as well as men being abused, and closeted artists who feel “shame”, which turns to anger, “around sexual proclivities”.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are signed and people are often paid off, she says. “It’s not rare or weird, it’s just the way it always has been, where the men do awful things and then they pay people off.” NDAs were often presented at the doors to celebrity homes before parties. Ovesen says she signed one herself on one occasion in 2000, but refused after this.
“They have cameras everywhere,” she says, as would be typical for security of an expensive property. “Not only is that NDA going to tell you, whatever you see here stays in this house, it’s also going to explain if anything happens to you, you can’t sue. And there’s also a clause about any videotaping.”
Pic: iStock
Ovesen claims there are prominent actors, artists, producers and executives all involved in similar behaviour. She never witnessed an alleged “freak-off” party – because, she says again, Combs was aware she kept a diary. “But did I know about them? Yes. Did I hear about them? Yes.”
There are others who have “their own version”, she says. “I’m thinking of one actor in particular – an Oscar-winning actor”.
She says she was called a “whore” and a liar when she published her book, and in the years afterwards. People were “angry I discussed men they revered in a way that didn’t uphold that reverence”, she says. But nothing was sugarcoated, even “my willing participation. I didn’t try to make myself look good, I just told the truth”.
Ovesen wanted people to know what the industry was like. “Women are shamed about our consensual sex, we’re shamed about our non-consensual sex. Women are shamed no matter what they do.”
Since the rise of the #MeToo movement, she has noticed a change in the reaction, from younger women discovering her for the first time. She is frustrated there had to be a change at all, but pleased for younger women, she says. Next year, she will release an updated version of her book, marking 20 years since it was published.
“I want this new generation to understand how important it is to believe women, to support each other.”
Sky News has contacted representatives for Combs for comment.
What is Combs accused of?
Pic: AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett 2000
Combs was arrested on suspicion of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in September and has remained in prison ahead of a trial currently set for May, having been denied bail.
The hip-hop mogul has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with the aid of a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence – including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He is also facing several civil lawsuits, with one lawyer saying he is representing dozens of accusers. Combs says his sexual relationships were consensual, and denies all wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, it emerged that rapper Jay-Z has been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, allegedly alongside Combs. A federal lawsuit – which originally only named Combs – was refiled to add Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter.
Jay-Z has strenuously denied those allegations and called for the identity of the accuser to be revealed, or for the case to be dismissed. He responded to the allegations in a lengthy statement sent to NBC News, Sky News’ US partner.
“These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!” he said. “Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?
“These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”
The rapper, who has three children with his wife Beyonce, continued: “My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence.
“Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable.”
Eight people have been found guilty of crimes connected to the gunpoint robbery of Kim Kardashian at a Paris hotel.
The theft targeting the TV personality, socialite and businesswoman in 2016 was carried out by a group the media dubbed the “grandpa robbers” as most were close to or of retirement age.
A six-member jury, led by three judges, reached a verdict on Friday following a four-week trial at Paris’s Palais de Justice.
The court found the ringleader and seven others guilty over the raid at the Hotel de Pourtales. Their sentences ranged from prison terms to a fine, but with time already served in pretrial detention, none of those convicted will go to jail.
The group were accused of pulling off one of the most audacious heists against a celebrity in modern French history, in the early hours of 3 October 2016 during Paris Fashion Week.
Wearing ski masks and disguised as police, the thieves stormed Kardashian‘s luxury hotel apartment, bound the star with zip ties, and stole jewellery worth an estimated $6m (£4.4m), including a ring given to her by then husband Kanye West.
‘You caused harm’
Chief judge David De Pas said the defendants’ ages – with the oldest being 79 and some others in their 60s and 70s – weighed on the court’s decision not to impose harsher sentences, and the nine years between the robbery and the trial was also taken into account.
He also told them the reality TV star had been traumatised by the raid, adding: “You caused harm. You caused fear.”
Some arrived in court in orthopaedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. But prosecutors warned observers not to be fooled.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the Paris trial
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Kim Kardashian’s testimony: What happened?
Ringleader Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, who arrived at court walking with a stick, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, with five of those suspended.
His DNA, which was found on the bands used to bind Kardashian, was a key breakthrough that helped crack open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium.
Three others who were accused of the most serious charges got seven years imprisonment, five of them suspended.
‘Most terrifying experience of my life’
After the ruling, 44-year-old Kardashian, who was not present for the verdict, issued a statement, saying: “I am deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.
“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family.
“While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system.”
The court in the French capital found a ninth person guilty of illegal weapons charges, while a tenth person was cleared.
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Kardashian departing Paris court on 13 May
Kardashian ‘thought she would be raped and killed’
Five of the defendants, who were all aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the incident, faced armed robbery and kidnapping charges.
The remaining five defendants were charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon.
During the robbery, Kardashian, who previously told the court she thought she would be raped and killed, was bound with zip-ties and left in the bathtub.
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She described the robbery as “terrifying” and said while she felt forgiveness, that in no way altered “the emotion and the feelings and the trauma,” adding “my life is forever changed”.
Two members of the group – Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, and Yunice Abbas – who wrote a book called I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, admitted some part in the robbery, while the remaining eight denied the charges.
Prosecutors had requested sentences of up to 10 years.
Kardashian earlier this week completed her six-year legal apprenticeship in California.
Most of the jewellery, which is understood to have been sold in Belgium, was never found.
A diamond-encrusted cross, dropped during the escape, was the only piece ever recovered.
Kneecap have released a new single ahead of their headline performance at London’s Wide Awake festival, just days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.
The rap trio from Belfast shared a link to the song – The Recap – which opens with Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost reporting about the counter terrorism police investigation – on Instagram, linking to their WhatsApp channel.
Kneecap performing in Belfast last year. Pic: PA
Bandmembers Liam O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, also thanked the 25,000 fans who had bought tickets for Friday night’s festival.
They also reference Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, with whom they’ve had previous run-ins, writing: “Kemi Badenoch you might wanna sit down for this one, if you’ve any seats left.”
Last year, Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK government in Belfast High Court after former business secretary Ms Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was a minister.
Ms Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned and suggested they should be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up. Some other politicians have made the same demand.
The track mocks Badenoch’s attempts to block their arts funding and the Conservative Party’s election loss. It features DJ Mozey.
It comes after O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the band held a surprise gig at the 100 Club on Oxford Street, where O hAnnaidh could be seen in videos on social media arriving on stage with tape covering his mouth.
He then joked about being careful about what he said, adding that he wanted to thank his lawyer, saying: “I need to thank my lawyer, he’s here tonight as well.”
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Stars talk about risks of speaking out
In video footage posted to YouTube, the band led the audience in a chant of “free Mo Chara” and joked about the police presence at the venue.
Police said they attended to manage visitors to the sold-out event.
The band said on X that the central London event sold out in 90 seconds, with 2,000 people on the waiting list.
O hAnnaidh, 27, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 June.
Formed in 2017, the group are known for their provocative lyrics in both Irish and English and proved a critical hit in the 2024 semi-fictionalised band origin story movie Kneecap, starring actor Michael Fassbender.
Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag.
Before the amps are even switched on in Brockwell Park, there’s been a lot of noise about who should or shouldn’t be performing.
It’s where Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap are set to play their first major show since band member Mo Chara was charged for allegedly displaying a flag in support of the terrorist group Hezbollah at one of their gigs.
Before that, there had been calls for festivals to reconsider booking the band over their political stances, and several have done, which prompted artists like Brian Eno, the Mystery Jets and CMAT to sign an open letter accusing Westminster and the British media of a campaign to “remove Kneecap from the public eye”.
They put their names to wording that said “in a democracy, no political figures… have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals.”
The band have since claimed they’re the victims of “political policing” designed to silence their views on Gaza.
So what’s the reality like for artists who are outspoken at a time when the world is so divided?
As some of the biggest names in music gathered in London for the Ivors, an annual celebration of songwriting, Self-Esteem – aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor – said the level of scrutiny can be “terrifying”.
‘The problem with the internet’
She told Sky News: “The problem with the internet is you say one thing, which gets scrutinised, and then you shit yourself, you really do… then you’re advised not to. And then you’re like ‘don’t advise me not to!’
“You second-guess anything you want to say any more… but any time I do that, I think ‘well that’s why you’ve got to say it then’.”
She said it can be frustrating that focus turns on to pop stars’ opinions instead of “the people doing the bad things”.
Read more:
Why are Kneecap controversial?
Self-Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor
‘Being a pop artist isn’t just about the music’
Former Little Mix singer Jade said: “To be a pop artist these days, it’s not just about music, it’s: ‘What’s your political stance?’
“I’ve always been quite vocal about those things, but in doing so you have even more of a scary spotlight on you, constantly assessing what your thoughts are as a human…it is scary.”
Trinidad-born London artist Berwyn, whose songs depict his struggles with UK immigration, says: “Silencing freedom of speech… is a road we don’t want to walk down.
“I’m not a politician, this is a very complicated issue, but I do absolutely believe in a human’s right to express themselves freely.”
But is that freedom of speech dependent on what side you’re coming from?
Berwyn speaking to Sky News
‘Unethical investments’
Soon, an event called Mighty Hoopla will take place at Brockwell Park as part of its programme of six festivals this summer.
Artists performing at that are coming under increased pressure from pro-Palestine groups to quit because it’s owned by a company called Superstruct, which has links to an American investment firm called KKR.
Critics argue that any KKR-affiliated events should be a red flag to artists as campaigners claim it “invests billions of pounds in companies” that do things like “develop Israeli underground data centres”, and they say it has shares in companies that “advertise property on illegally occupied land in the West Bank”.
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Mighty Hoopla itself has said while it “cannot control investments made in our parent companies”, it wants to “state its clear opposition to KKR’s unethical investments”.
And Superstruct – which puts on over 80 festivals around the world – says while horrified by the crisis in Gaza: “We are aware that there is a significant amount of debate… around our festivals.
“Our owners, made up of our promoters and several investment firms, support us to achieve the highest standards… fans and artists rightly expect.”
They insist that operationally, Superstruct is independently run and all its “revenue and profits… remains entirely within our business… towards the ongoing development… of our festivals.”
Read more from Sky News:
Kid Cudi says Diddy ‘messed with his dog’
Bono calls for Israel to be ‘released from Netanyahu’
Chris Brown posts message as singer is bailed
Even deciding where to perform can have political connotations for musicians these days.
As Tom Gray, a founding member of the rock band Gomez, now chair of the Ivors, explains: “The amount of commercial interest required to get a young artist into the public eye means they have to keep their head down a lot and that’s a terrible shame.
“It’s not just artistic expression, but personal human expression is one of the fundamental things that allows people to feel they have agency.”
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