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.”
A real-life drama is unfolding just outside Hollywood. Ferocious wildfires have ballooned at an “alarming speed”, in just a matter of hours. Why?
What caused the California wildfires?
There are currently three wildfires torching southern California. The causes of all three are still being investigated.
The majority (85%) of all forest fires across the United States are started by humans, either deliberately or accidentally, according to the US Forest Service.
But there is a difference between what ignites a wildfire and what allows it to spread.
However these fires were sparked, other factors have fuelled them, making them spread quickly and leaving people less time to prepare or flee.
The main culprit so far is the Santa Ana winds.
Follow live: Malibu residents told to get ready to flee
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LA residents face ‘long and scary night ahead’
What are Santa Ana winds?
So-called Santa Ana winds are extreme, dry winds that are common in LA in colder winter months.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection warned strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity are whipping up “extreme wildfire risks”.
Winds have already topped 60mph and could reach 100mph in mountains and foothills – including in areas that have barely had any rain for months.
It has been too windy to launch firefighting aircraft, further hampering efforts to tackle the blazes.
These north-easterly winds blow from the interior of Southern California towards the coast, picking up speed as they squeeze through mountain ranges that border the urban area around the coast.
They blow in the opposite direction to the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific Ocean into the area.
The lack of humidity in the air parches vegetation, making it more flammable once a fire is started.
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Wildfires spread as state of emergency declared
The ‘atmospheric blow-dryer’ effect
The winds create an “atmospheric blow-dryer” effect that will “dry things out even further”, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The longer the extreme wind persists, the drier the vegetation will become, he said.
“So some of the strongest winds will be at the beginning of the event, but some of the driest vegetation will actually come at the end, and so the reality is that there’s going to be a very long period of high fire risk.”
What role has climate change played?
California governor Gavin Newsom said fire season has become “year-round in the state of California” despite the state not “traditionally” seeing fires at this time of year – apparently alluding to the impact of climate change.
Scientists will need time to assess the role of climate change in these fires, which could range from drying out the land to actually decreasing wind speeds.
But broadly we know that climate change is increasing the hot, dry weather in the US that parches vegetation, thereby creating the fuel for wildfires – that’s according to scientists at World Weather Attribution.
But human activities, such as forest management and ignition sources, are also important factors that dictate how a fire spreads, WWA said.
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Pic: Reuters
Southern California has experienced a particularly hot summer, followed by almost no rain during what should be the wet season, said Professor Alex Hall, also from UCLA.
“And all of this comes on the heels of two very rainy years, which means there is plenty of fuel for potential wildfires.
“These intense winds have the potential to turn a small spark into a conflagration that eats up thousands of acres with alarming speed – a dynamic that is only intensifying with the warmer temperatures of a changing climate.”
The flames from a fire that broke out yesterday evening near a nature reserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so quickly that staff at a care home had to push residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a car park.
US
LA wildfire site is one of most exclusive suburbs – but it’s in the grips of one of mother nature’s terrifying levellers
Pacific Palisades is one of Los Angeles’s most expensive and exclusive suburbs, home to film stars and billionaires.
The broad boulevards are framed by palm trees and gated mansions with swimming pools.
But it’s in the grips of one of mother nature’s terrifying levellers, a firestorm which is ripping through community after community, raging and unremitting.
Follow live: 30,000 told to flee
Pic: AP
A firefighter jumps over a fence while fighting the Palisades Fire. Pic: AP
A billowing cloud of black smoke loomed over the main shopping street with its fancy restaurants and designer shops, threatening to destroy what many here consider to be their slice of paradise.
It is a reminder of the destructive power of this sort of weather.
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Martha Kelner reports from Pacific Palisades
Reza, a lifelong resident of Pacific Palisades, was evacuating with what belongings he could fit in his SUV.
“This is surreal, this is unbelievable,” he said.
Reza, a lifelong resident of Pacific Palisades, was evacuating with what belongings he could fit in his SUV.
“I’ve lived here all my life but this is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This is the worst of the worst.
“I’ve never seen it with these winds, we just keep praying that the direction changes. But if the direction changes it’s to the detriment of somebody else, that’s the horrible part about it all.”
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
January is not normally wildfire season, but these are not ordinary circumstances, the blazes being propelled by the strongest winds in southern California for more than a decade, fuelled by drought conditions.
Authorities are warning that the winds will grow stronger overnight, meaning that conditions will likely worsen before they get better.
Police and the fire department went door to door, urging people to evacuate or risk losing their lives.
On the main road out of town, there was gridlock traffic, with some abandoning their cars to flee on foot.
Pic: AP
On Mount Holyoake Avenue, Liz Lerner, an 84-year-old with congestive heart failure, was on her driveway and visibly panicked.
“I don’t drive, and I’m by myself,” she said.
“I have no relatives, I’m 100% alone and I don’t know what to do. My father built this house in 1949, this is my family home and this is the end. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Liz Lerner, an 84 year old with congestive heart failure, was on her driveway and visibly panicked
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Around the corner, another man was hosing down his multi-million dollar home in a bid to save his property from the fire bounding towards it from a nearby canyon.
“I can’t decide whether to evacuate or stay and carry on hosing down my house,” he said.
“It’s hard to know which way the flames are heading.”
Pic: AP
Other blazes were breaking out across LA with firefighting planes grounded because of winds which are growing stronger by the hour.
More homes, neighbourhoods and lives are under threat from this perfect and petrifying storm.
Since winning re-election, president-elect Donald Trump has expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he could not assure reporters that military or economic coercion would not be used to try and gain control of both areas.
“I can say this, we need them for economic security,” he said.
The two locations, which are nowhere near each other geographically, pose different interests to the incoming president.
But his desire to seize them both has caused immense backlash.
Why does Trump want Greenland?
Greenland is the world’s largest island and a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. With a population of 57,000, it has been part of Denmark for 600 years.
It is also a founding member of NATO and is home to a large US military base.
Straddling the Arctic circle between the US, Russia and Europe, the island offers a unique geopolitical advantage, that America has eyed for more than 150 years.
The village of Kangaamiut in Greenland. Pic: AP
It’s even more valuable as the Arctic opens up more to shipping and trade.
The idea of purchasing Greenland is not a new idea for Mr Trump, as it came up during his first term in office. But he has since reiterated the benefit it could have for America’s national security.
Donald Trump Jr visits Nuuk, Greenland. Pic: Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix/Reuters
Pic: Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix/Reuters
“We need greater national security purposes,” Mr Trump said. “I’ve been told that for a long time, long before I even ran.
“People really don’t even know that Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
Mr Trump’s claim to the island coincided with a visit by his son, Donald Trump Jr, who was in Greenland filming for a documentary, Sky News US partner network, NBC News said.
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Rich in natural resources
As well as its location, Greenland holds rich deposits of various natural resources.
Locked inside the island are valuable rare earth minerals needed for telecommunications, as well as uranium, billions of untapped barrels of oil and a vast supply of natural gas that used to be inaccessible but is becoming less so.
Many of the same minerals are currently mostly supplied by China, so other countries such as the US are interested in tapping into available resources closer to home.
A front-row seat to the climate crisis
More than the oil, gas or minerals, Greenland has a lot of ice – and provides a front-row seat to the globe’s climate crisis.
If that ice melts, it would reshape coastlines across the globe and has the potential to dramatically shift weather patterns.
A glacier in Greenland. Pic: AP
In fact, Greenland holds enough ice that if it all melts, the world’s seas would rise by 24ft (7.4m).
Greenland also influences hurricane and winter storm activity. Because of its mountains of ice, it has the power to change patterns in the jet stream, which brings storms across the globe and dictates daily weather.
Often, especially in winter, a blocking system of high pressure off Greenland causes Arctic air to plunge to the west and east, sweeping across North America and Europe, winter weather expert Judah Cohen told the Associated Press.
What effect could this have on the UK?
British politician and security expert, Mike Martin, explained on X that the seas between Greenland and the UK – which has Iceland in the middle – are “utterly vital” for NATO.
He explained that during the Cold War, the UK would often have 50 ships stationed in the area to look after the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap – which is the “only sensible route” that the Russian northern fleet has to get into the Atlantic Ocean.
Both the UK and Denmark continue to have a shared security interest in the gap.
The UK government website states that as part of the UK’s Arctic Policy Framework, it will continue to develop military capability in collaboration with Denmark, to allow it to operate in the region and in order to safeguard UK interests and those of its allies.
However, if overtaken by the US, this collaboration could be affected.
‘Greenland is not for sale’
Addressing Mr Trump’s comments in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she did not believe the US would use military or economic power to secure control over Greenland.
“Greenland is not for sale,” Ms Frederiksen said, adding: “We need to stay calm and stick to our principles.”
Referring to the US as Denmark’s “most important and closest ally” she said she welcomed the US taking a greater interest in the Arctic region, but said it would have to be done in a way that is “respectful of the Greenlandic people”.
Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said ‘Greenland is not for sale’. Pic: AP
In the past, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has called for independence from Denmark, but said he has no interest in the island nation becoming part of the US.
While Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, added: “Most people don’t want it.
“I think some people find it quite disrespectful. And the way it has been done, and just the fact that you’re saying that you can buy another country.”
Mute Egede, head of the government of Greenland. Pic: AP
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot also weighed in on the matter, saying on Wednesday that the European Union would not let “other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are”.
“If you’re asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no. But have we entered into
a period of time when it is survival of the fittest? Then my answer is yes,” Mr Barrot said.
Why does Trump want the Panama Canal?
The Panama Canal is a waterway that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It acts as a shortcut route, saving time and costs for transporting goods, according to the Embassy of Panama website.
Under the Jimmy Carter administration, control of the canal was handed from the US to Panama in 1979, with the US ending its joint partnership in controlling the strategic waterway in 1999.
A cargo ship on the Panama Canal. Pic: AP
It is now administered by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous government entity, although a Hong Kong-based contractor operates two ports connected to it, NBC reported.
Mr Trump has claimed that the US is being treated unfairly when it is “overcharged” higher rates for its ships to sail the canal than those of other countries.
He claimed that Panama is in “violation” of a deal with the US and that “China is basically taking it over”.
“We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday. “They’ve abused that gift.”
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Trump takes dig at Jimmy Carter on Panama Canal
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino denied in a video statement last month that China has influence over the canal and shot down the idea of the US taking back authority over it.
“Every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to be so,” he said.
The Panama Canal’s Madden Dam. Pic: AP
Could Trump actually do it?
The incoming president has offered few details on how he might carry out his plans to grow the US footprint, even as he promised throughout the news conference to return the country to a “golden age” of improved national security and “common sense”.
If Greenland becomes independent, it could choose to become associated with the US.
One option could be to form a so-called “free association” pact with America, similar to the status of Pacific island nations Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.
Mr Trump has also suggested he would impose tariffs on Denmark if it resists his offer to purchase the island.
This could make things difficult for Danish companies, particularly drugmakers like Novo Nordisk, which sells the weight loss drug Wegovy and the type 2 diabetes medicine Ozempic, according to investment magazine Barron’s.
Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University, told the magazine that the Trump administration could tailor specific tariffs to target products made by Danish companies regardless of where they are manufactured.
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