Sean “Diddy” Combs’ mother, Janice Combs, has responded to a Netflix docuseries about her embattled son and denied the allegations in the documentary.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, the four-part documentary, according to Netflix, lays out the “story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built — as well as the underworld that lay just beneath its surface.”
In the first episode of Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Combs’ former friend and colleague, Kirk Burrowes, claimed in an interview that he once saw the Bad Boy Records founder slap his mother. Burrowes claimed that the incident happened during the fatal 1991 stampede at a charity basketball game that Combs and the City College of New York had organised, PEOPLE reported. Nine people lost their lives.
“I saw Janice question Sean [about his future]. He’s going into this music business thing,” Burrowes said in the interview. “He just left school, and now this extreme tragedy has occurred. She’s like, ‘Did he make the right decision?’ And I saw him put his hands on her. Call her a bitch and slapped her.”
But Janice Combs, in a statement to Deadline, denied the claim as well as other allegations leveled against her and her son in the docuseries.
“I am writing this statement to correct some of the lies presented in the Netflix, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, released on December 2, 2025. These inaccuracies regarding my son Sean’s upbringing and family life is intentionally done to mislead viewers and further harm our reputation,” Janice said in the statement.
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“In the documentary, I am portrayed as an abusive parent. This is untrue. As I have stated previously, I was a single mother, raising my son, I held three and even four jobs in an attempt to provide a comfortable upbringing and quality education for my child. I raised Sean with love and hard work, not abuse.”
Janice added: “The statement made by Mr. Tim Patterson about Sean‘s life regarding my relationship with my son is not truthful and salacious to promote the series. To the contrary, I loved and nurtured Sean. My memories of Sean growing up are one of a respectful and a diligent child and teenager. Sean has always been an industrious, goal oriented, over achiever.”
She also addressed the allegations leveled by Burrowes. “Moreover, the allegations stated by Mr. Kirk Burrows that my son slapped me while we were conversing after the tragic City College events on December 28, 1991, are inaccurate and patently false,” Janice stated.
“That was a very sad day for all of us. For him to use this tragedy and incorporate fake narratives to further his prior failed and current attempt to gain what was never his, Bad Boy Records is wrong, outrageous and past offensive.”
She continued: “Sean has been a dutiful son always ensuring that I was cared for and vigilantly managing my medical care, as well as providing financial support. I am requesting that these distortions, falsehoods and misleading statements be publicly retracted.”
Combs, 56, is serving his 50-month conviction at the Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix in New Jersey. The Bad Boy Records founder was handed the punishment after a jury found him guilty of prostitution-related charges. Judge Arun Subramanian also fined him $500,000 and ordered five years of supervised release at a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Friday, October 3. Combs had faced up to 20 years behind bars.
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