Sean “Diddy” Combs has apologised and taken “full responsibility” for “all of the hurt and pain” he has caused others in a letter to the court, less than 24 hours before he is due to be sentenced.

The hip-hop mogul did not give evidence during his trial earlier this year, so this is the first time he has addressed Judge Arun Subramanian.

Combs was convicted of two prostitution-related charges in July, following a trial lasting almost eight weeks, but was cleared of more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

In the letter, the 55-year-old admits “past wrongs” but says he is no longer running from his “many mistakes”.

He also addresses the infamous CCTV footage from an LA hotel in 2016, which showed him attacking his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

“First and foremost, I want to apologise and say how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused others by my conduct,” Combs writes. “I take full responsibility and accountability for my past wrongs.”

The rapper describes the last two years – which started with a civil lawsuit filed by Cassie in November 2023 – as the “hardest” of his life, but admits: “I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself.”

Since his arrest in September 2024 and subsequent time in prison, the rapper says he has “had to look in the mirror like never before” and admits his “downfall was rooted in my selfishness”.

Combs is due to be sentenced on Friday and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors have called for at least 11 years, while his defence team argues he should serve no more than 14 months. The latter would see him walk free almost immediately after time already served.

His letter comes after several filed by witnesses who testified during the trial, including Cassie, who has urged the judge not to be lenient and expressed fears for her safety.

She alleged on the witness stand that she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into taking part in sex sessions with male escorts. Combs has strenuously denied allegations of sexual abuse, and jurors cleared him of sex trafficking, only finding him guilty of the charges relating to hiring the sex workers.

However, his legal team admitted from the beginning that he had been violent in the past.

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‘I could not forgive anyone putting a hand on one of my daughters’

Talking about the 2016 CCTV footage – which showed Combs, wearing only a towel and socks, attacking Cassie in a hallway – he says in his letter: “The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily.

“I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved. I’m sorry for that and always will be. 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.”

He goes on to say he feels sorry “for something that I couldn’t forgive someone else for: if they put their hands on one of my daughters.”

The footage was played several times during his trial after first being made public by CNN in May 2024.

The hip-hop mogul also references “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified against him in court, who did not give her real name.

“I thought I was providing for Jane concerning her and her child, but after hearing her testimony, I realised that I hurt her,” he writes. “For this I am deeply sorry. I lost my way … Lost in the drugs and the excess.”

‘The old me died in jail’

Combs goes on to describe his time in prison, saying he has been “humbled and broken to my core” and that there “have been so many times that I wanted to give up”.

“The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn. Prison will change you or kill you – I choose to live.”

Combs says he has had therapy and has been “working diligently to become the best version” of himself, and that there has been some good to come out of his time in prison.

“For starters, I am now sober for the first time in 25 years. I have been trying my best to deal with my drug abuse and anger issues and take accountability as well as positive steps towards healing.”

Asking Judge Subramanian for “mercy” for himself, his seven children and his 84-year-old mother, he says: “I have failed my children as a father. My father was murdered when I was three years old so I know first-hand what it is to not have a father. More than anything, I just want the opportunity to return home and be the father that they need and deserve.”

Combs goes on to say he is “scared to death” at the thought of spending more time away from his family, and that he no longer cares “about the money or the fame”.

And as previously detailed by his lawyers, he describes conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn as inhumane – but says he is not looking for “pity or sympathy”, and that his time there has “changed me forever!”.

Combs concludes by vowing to never commit another crime again: “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future … I’m committed to the journey of remaining a drug free, non-violent and peaceful person.

“Today, I humbly ask you for another chance – another chance to be a better father, another chance to be a better son, another chance to be a better leader in my community, and another chance to live a better life.”

CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney has a knack for finding a silver lining. It has been his defining trait over the past five seasons, as Clemson has hovered near the top of the ACC, but frustratingly far from the run of dominance it enjoyed in the 2010s. In a loss, Swinney found lessons. Even after a blowout, he saw hope. Even in the midst of fan revolt, he found all the evidence he needed of an inevitable turnaround within his own locker room.

Perhaps that’s what’s most jarring about Clemson’s most recent bout with mediocrity. It’s not just that the Tigers, the prohibitive favorite in the ACC to open the season, are 1-3 heading into Saturday’s showdown with equally disappointing and 2-2 North Carolina (noon ET, ESPN), but that Swinney’s usual optimism has been tinged with his own frustration.

“It’s just an absolute coaching failure,” Swinney said. “I don’t know another way to say it. And I’m not pointing the finger, I’m pointing the thumb. It starts with me, because I hired everybody, and I empower everybody and equip everybody.”

Record aside, Clemson has been here before — after slow starts in 2021, 2022, 2023 and last year’s blowout at the hands of Georgia to open the season. And yet, at each of those turns, Swinney remained his program’s biggest salesman.

Now, after the Tigers’ worst start since 2004, not even Swinney is immune to the reality. The questions are bigger, the stakes are higher and the solutions are more ephemeral.

In the aftermath of an emphatic loss to Syracuse in Death Valley two weeks ago, ESPN social posted the historic upset in bold type. The response from former Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas echoed the frustration so many inside the Tigers’ once impenetrable inner sanctum are feeling.

“At this point,” Thomas replied, “it’s not even an upset anymore.”

Two months remain of a seemingly lost season. There is a path for Clemson to rebound, as it has before, and finish with a respectable, albeit disappointing, record. But there is another road, too — one hardly imagined by anyone inside the program just weeks ago. A road that leads to the end of a dynasty.

“He’s definitely bought himself some time to be able to have some hiccups along the way,” former Clemson receiver Hunter Renfrow said. “He’s an unbelievable coach and leader, and he’ll get it figured out.”

FORMER CLEMSON RUNNING back and now podcaster Darien Rencher banked a cache of interviews with star players during fall camp that he planned to release as the season progressed. Most have been evergreen. At the time he talked with Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, that one did, too. Looking back, it feels more like a time capsule, one that can’t be unearthed without a full autopsy of what has unfolded since.

“A month and a half ago, we’re talking about him being a front-runner for the Heisman, a top-five draft pick,” Rencher said. “I mean — my gosh.”

Any unspooling of what has gone wrong at Clemson must start with the quarterback.

Klubnik’s career followed a pretty straight trend — a rocky rookie season primarily as the backup to a sophomore campaign filled with growing pains to a coming-out party last season that ended with 336 passing yards and three touchdowns in a playoff loss to Texas. The obvious next step was into the echelon of elite QBs — not just nationally, but within the pantheon of Clemson’s best, alongside Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.

Instead, Klubnik has looked lost.

“It can’t be physical unless he’s got the yips, which maybe he does,” former Clemson offensive lineman and current ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain said. “It’s bad sometimes. You’ve got guys screaming wide-open, and he’s looking at them, and the ball’s just not coming out. That’s the unexplainable thing.”

Through four games, Klubnik has nearly as many passing touchdowns (six) as he does interceptions (four).

There are, however, more than a few folks around the program who believe they can explain the struggles — for Klubnik and other stars who underwhelmed in September.

“We don’t got no dogs at Clemson,” former All-America defensive end Shaq Lawson posted in early September. “NIL has changed everything.”

It’s telling that even Swinney also has been vocal in his critique of Klubnik.

“It’s routine stuff. Basic, not complicated, like just simple reads, simple progression,” Swinney said of Klubnik’s play in Week 1, a performance that has been mirrored in subsequent games. “Holding the ball and running out of the pocket. Just didn’t play well, and so I didn’t have to talk to him. He already knew. He knows the game.”

This is a different era of college football, and while Swinney often sought a measure of patience with his players before, Klubnik is, by most reports, the second-highest-paid person inside the football building after Swinney, so the expectations have changed.

“If [Klubnik] ain’t a dude, we ain’t winning,” Swinney said after the loss to LSU in Week 1. “Dudes got to be dudes. This is big boy football.”

That massive NIL paydays and equally immense hype might underpin Klubnik’s struggles is not without anecdotal evidence. Look around the country and there are plenty of others — Florida‘s DJ Lagway, Texas‘ Arch Manning, UCLA‘s Nico Iamaleava, South Carolina‘s LaNorris Sellers and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier — who’ve endured rough starts to seasons that were supposed to be star turns.

And yet, for Klubnik, this feels like a hollow excuse. He is, according to numerous coaches and teammates, unflinchingly competitive and talented. If anything, the knock on Klubnik the past few years has been his eagerness to play the role of hero, to do too much.

Perhaps the bigger impact of NIL on Klubnik’s performance comes in how far he has been from earning the paycheck. The millions could be an excuse to relax or a burden to live up to, and Klubnik’s tape through four games shows a QB scrambling to look the part rather than simply playing the game as he always has.

“It’s a tough sport and a team sport. There’s no perfect quarterback,” Klubnik said. “For me, I’m not paying attention to how other quarterbacks are playing, but I’m competitive whether we’re good or not, and I’m going to fight to the very end. I feel like the tape shows that, but you ask anybody in this facility about who I am and who this team is, we’re going to fight and we’re not going anywhere.”

SWINNEY HAS OFTEN bristled at outright criticism of his own performance, like his tirade in response to one apoplectic Clemson fan — Tyler from Spartanburg — who called into Swinney’s radio show after a 4-4 start to the 2023 season demanding change. Swinney’s rant was largely credited as inspiring a five-game winning streak to end the year, an emphatic rebuke to those ready to write his epitaph.

“He’s done it his way,” Renfrow said of Swinney. “And he’s built a really good roster. Three months ago, everyone was crowning us as the best team to play this year.”

The narrative has quickly changed, and Swinney isn’t arguing.

“Everybody can start throwing mud now,” Swinney said even before this latest round of mudslinging began in earnest. “Bring it on, say we suck again. Tell everybody we suck. Coaches suck, Cade stinks. Start writing that again.”

During Clemson’s past four seasons — years of 10, 10, nine and 10 wins — the underlying narrative was that the Tigers remained good, but they were slowly falling behind the competition due to Swinney’s stubborn insistence on remaining old-school. He was tagged as reluctant to embrace the NIL era due to comments he made in 2014, seven years before NIL began (though Clemson was heavily invested in its players via its collective at the time), and for multiple seasons, he refused to deal in the portal, retaining the vast majority of his recruited talent but adding nothing in the portal until this offseason.

And yet, Swinney has evolved — even if a bit more gradually than most coaches.

“One of the lazy takes on Swinney is he hasn’t changed,” Rencher said. “He did what he needed to do to give them a chance. He went and got the best offensive coordinator [Garrett Riley] in the country to come to Clemson. He got one of the most renowned defensive coordinators [Tom Allen] in the country who was just in the playoffs to come to Clemson. He went in the portal and got a stud D-end [in Will Heldt]. He paid his guys, retained his roster. These guys got paid.”

Even amid the hefty criticism coming from former players, little has been directed at Swinney. They played for him, they know him, and they’re convinced he’s not the source of Clemson’s struggles.

The new coordinators — Riley was hired in 2023, and Allen was hired this offseason — and current players, however, are a different story.

“They want to win more than we do,” former edge rusher KJ Henry posted amid Clemson’s stunning loss against Syracuse.

The outpouring of frustration from former players — many, such as Henry, who endured a share of setbacks during Clemson’s more rocky stretch in the 2020s — has been notable.

Heldt said he has not paid much attention to outside criticism, but he understands it.

“They’ve earned the right,” Heldt said. “They put in the time and have earned the right to say how they feel, but I don’t put too much thought into that.”

If the commentary hasn’t seeped into the locker room, the message still seems clear.

Swinney’s scathing review of the coaching staff — himself included — this week was evidence that the whole culture is off. Swinney was lambasted for years for an insular approach to building a staff, hiring mostly former Clemson players and promoting from within, but those hires at least maintained a culture that had driven championships. But now, the disjointed play and lack of any obvious identity on both sides of the ball has made Riley and Allen feel more like mercenaries than saviors, and the result is a sum that is less than its individual parts.

Riley’s playcalling has been questioned relentlessly. In the second half against LSU, with Clemson either ahead or within a score, the Tigers virtually abandoned the run game entirely.

Allen was brought in to toughen up a defense that was scorched last season by Louisville, SMU, Texas and, in the most embarrassing performance of the season, by Sellers and rival South Carolina. And yet, with NFL talent such as Heldt, Peter Woods and T.J. Parker on the defensive line, Syracuse owned the line of scrimmage in its Week 4 win in Death Valley.

Meanwhile promising recruits such as T.J. Moore and Gideon Davidson have yet to look ready for the big time, and the transfer additions beyond Heldt — Tristan Smith and Jeremiah Alexander — have offered virtually nothing.

Start making a list of all the things that have gone wrong, and the frustration is apparent.

“Dropped balls, Cade misses a guy, the offensive line gets beat, Cade has PTSD and rolls out when he shouldn’t — it’s just all these things,” Rencher said. “You can blame a lot of things but it’s just too much wrong to where it can’t be right. It’s too many things everywhere so it can’t come together. You can overcome some things, but they’re just all not on the same page.”

BEFORE HIS GAME against Clemson, which Georgia Tech ultimately won on a last-second field goal, Yellow Jackets coach Brent Key set the stage for what he knew would be a battle, despite the Tigers’ rocky start.

“No one’s better at playing the underdog than Dabo,” Key said.

Swinney has resurrected his teams again and again, swatted away the critics, stayed true to his core philosophies and emerged victorious — if not a national champion.

So, is this year really different? Has Clemson lost its edge? Has Swinney lost his magic?

“I see an extremely talented team,” Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson said. “Those guys are dangerous. I don’t care what their record is. That’s not just a team, that’s a program. Dabo Swinney does a great job, and they went out and lost the first game last year and went on to win the conference. A lot of these kids, when I was at Texas A&M, we tried to recruit them. People can think what they want when they look at the record. I’m not looking at the record at all.”

Added another assistant coach who faced Clemson this season: “It wouldn’t surprise me if they run the table the rest of the way.”

Winning out would still get Clemson to 10 wins, a mark that has been the standard under Swinney. Winning out would likely shift all the criticism of September into another offseason of promise, such as the one Clemson just enjoyed. Winning out is still possible, according to the players there who’ve said a deep breath during an off week has been a chance to reset and start anew.

“The college football landscape has changed so much over the last 10 years,” Renfrow said. “But developing, teaching, coaching, bringing people together — that hasn’t, and Swinney’s as good as I’ve been around at those things.”

That’s largely the lesson Florida State head coach Mike Norvell took from his team’s miserable 2-10 performance a year ago. In the face of a landslide of change and criticism, the key is doubling down on the beliefs that made a coach successful to begin with, not a host of changes intended to appease the masses.

“The dynamic of college football and being a part of a team and the pressures that are within an organization now are greater than they’ve ever been,” Norvell said. “You put money into the equation, and you have all the agents and people surrounding these kids, when things don’t go as expected, you’ve got to really stay true to who you are and make sure you’re connected with these guys at their needs. The example we had last year, we didn’t do a great job at that because as the tidal wave of challenges showed up, it’s critical to refocus and revamp the guys for what they can do. It’s not fun to go through, but I think you’ll continue to see more and more.”

The game has changed, and Clemson, for all of Swinney’s steadfast resolve, has been swept along with the currents.

There’s a legacy at Clemson, one it helped build, and for all its faith in Swinney’s process, it’s not hard to see the cracks in the façade.

Never mind the record, Rencher said. Maintaining the Clemson standard is what’s at stake now.

“That, more than any loss, would be the most disappointing thing, if they didn’t respond,” Rencher said. “Swinney’s optimistic. They’re built to last. He said they’re going to use all these things people are throwing at us to build more championships, and I believe him. Clemson is built on belief and responding the right way. It would be unlike Clemson to not respond. That would be so much more disappointing than going 1-3 if we just laid down. If this is the class that just lays down, I can’t imagine that.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs has apologised and taken “full responsibility” for “all of the hurt and pain” he has caused others in a letter to the court, less than 24 hours before he is due to be sentenced.

The hip-hop mogul did not give evidence during his trial earlier this year, so this is the first time he has addressed Judge Arun Subramanian.

Combs was convicted of two prostitution-related charges in July, following a trial lasting almost eight weeks, but was cleared of more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

In the letter, the 55-year-old admits “past wrongs” but says he is no longer running from his “many mistakes”.

He also addresses the infamous CCTV footage from an LA hotel in 2016, which showed him attacking his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

“First and foremost, I want to apologise and say how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused others by my conduct,” Combs writes. “I take full responsibility and accountability for my past wrongs.”

The rapper describes the last two years – which started with a civil lawsuit filed by Cassie in November 2023 – as the “hardest” of his life, but admits: “I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself.”

Since his arrest in September 2024 and subsequent time in prison, the rapper says he has “had to look in the mirror like never before” and admits his “downfall was rooted in my selfishness”.

Combs is due to be sentenced on Friday and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors have called for at least 11 years, while his defence team argues he should serve no more than 14 months. The latter would see him walk free almost immediately after time already served.

His letter comes after several filed by witnesses who testified during the trial, including Cassie, who has urged the judge not to be lenient and expressed fears for her safety.

She alleged on the witness stand that she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into taking part in sex sessions with male escorts. Combs has strenuously denied allegations of sexual abuse, and jurors cleared him of sex trafficking, only finding him guilty of the charges relating to hiring the sex workers.

However, his legal team admitted from the beginning that he had been violent in the past.

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‘I could not forgive anyone putting a hand on one of my daughters’

Talking about the 2016 CCTV footage – which showed Combs, wearing only a towel and socks, attacking Cassie in a hallway – he says in his letter: “The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily.

“I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved. I’m sorry for that and always will be. 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.”

He goes on to say he feels sorry “for something that I couldn’t forgive someone else for: if they put their hands on one of my daughters.”

The footage was played several times during his trial after first being made public by CNN in May 2024.

The hip-hop mogul also references “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified against him in court, who did not give her real name.

“I thought I was providing for Jane concerning her and her child, but after hearing her testimony, I realised that I hurt her,” he writes. “For this I am deeply sorry. I lost my way … Lost in the drugs and the excess.”

‘The old me died in jail’

Combs goes on to describe his time in prison, saying he has been “humbled and broken to my core” and that there “have been so many times that I wanted to give up”.

“The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn. Prison will change you or kill you – I choose to live.”

Combs says he has had therapy and has been “working diligently to become the best version” of himself, and that there has been some good to come out of his time in prison.

“For starters, I am now sober for the first time in 25 years. I have been trying my best to deal with my drug abuse and anger issues and take accountability as well as positive steps towards healing.”

Asking Judge Subramanian for “mercy” for himself, his seven children and his 84-year-old mother, he says: “I have failed my children as a father. My father was murdered when I was three years old so I know first-hand what it is to not have a father. More than anything, I just want the opportunity to return home and be the father that they need and deserve.”

Combs goes on to say he is “scared to death” at the thought of spending more time away from his family, and that he no longer cares “about the money or the fame”.

And as previously detailed by his lawyers, he describes conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn as inhumane – but says he is not looking for “pity or sympathy”, and that his time there has “changed me forever!”.

Combs concludes by vowing to never commit another crime again: “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future … I’m committed to the journey of remaining a drug free, non-violent and peaceful person.

“Today, I humbly ask you for another chance – another chance to be a better father, another chance to be a better son, another chance to be a better leader in my community, and another chance to live a better life.”