Entertainment
Aubrey O’Day opens up about disturbing Sean “Diddy” Combs allegations, and her hopes of “speaking for the underdogs”
Warning: This content discusses allegations of sexual assault, which some may find distressing.
Danity Kane’s Aubrey O’Day is opening up about a witness affidavit that alleged she was sexually assaulted by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
O’Day sat down with CBS News for her first network interview since Netflix’s new documentary, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” was released. A clip from the documentary shows O’Day reading from an affidavit that describes an alleged sexual assault involving her, Combs, and another man while she was “looking very inebriated.” She says she has no memory of the alleged incident, but it has left her with questions.
O’Day left with questions after shocking affidavit
“Does this mean I was raped? Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped. And I don’t want to know,” said O’Day in the documentary, which has received a reported 40 million views globally in its first two weeks.
In a statement to CBS News, a spokesman for Combs said that the music mogul “categorically denies the allegations in the Netflix documentary,” saying that “he has never sexually assaulted anyone.” Combs plans to address these matters “in the appropriate legal forum” rather than “speculation from anonymous affidavits,” the statement continued. Combs is currently serving a 50-month sentence in a New Jersey federal prison after being convicted on prostitution-related charges.
O’Day once worked closely with Combs, who helped found Danity Kane on his reality show “Making the Band” in 2005 before he ultimately disbanded the group in 2009. Speaking about Combs in the documentary brought up a lot of painful moments for O’Day, who said she’s still processing the information.
She wanted to make sure the person who wrote the affidavit is “100 percent certain” it was her and that they didn’t confuse her with another bandmate or doppelgänger.
“The story that they have told has been consistent for two years in every area that they’ve been in,” O’Day said. To this day, O’Day still doesn’t know what happened.
O’Day has previously emphasized the role of forgiveness in her journey through the entertainment industry, saying that it starts with forgiving yourself.
“I forgive myself. That was the hard one,” she said. “The feelings that I’ve had throughout all of this really come down to, like, forgiving myself for misplacing abuse, or attention, or acknowledgment as love. Those weren’t one in the same. And so I had to forgive myself first.”
Living her purpose
When it comes to forgiving Combs, O’Day said it doesn’t really matter.
“Do I forgive him? I don’t think that matters to the bigger picture. I think that he needs to do the work to forgive himself,” O’Day said.
Right now, O’Day said her focus is going to remain on the survivors and pushing for systematic change.
“I want to be helping people, and speaking for the underdogs, and speaking for the voices that aren’t being heard. And I didn’t necessarily get to spend the majority of my life yet being able to live in my purpose,” she said.
Combs is expected to be released from prison in May 2028, according to online prison records. While some rumors have swirled about the possibility of a presidential pardon, a senior White House official called the reports “speculation” and told CBS News any decisions on pardons would come directly from President Trump.
Marc Agnifilo, the lead attorney for Combs, told “CBS Mornings” in August that he hasn’t had any conversations about a possible pardon: “I have not spoken to the president. I have not spoken to anybody who speaks to the president about Sean Combs. I have not.”
O’Day doesn’t believe Mr. Trump would pardon Combs.
“I think the only reason, in my opinion, that the president would pardon ‘Diddy’ is if it worked well for him in midterms, in regards to gathering a certain voting base,” she said. “The moves are always strategic, and the moves right now are about midterms.”
Zendaya apparently had two of her The Odyssey co-stars feeling a little jealous on set.
According to Matt Damon, director Christopher Nolan handed Zendaya praise so rare that both Damon and Tom Holland couldn’t stop talking about it.
Speaking to Elle for Zendaya’s latest cover story on May 21, Damon explained that Nolan is famously reserved when reacting to scenes. “Yep, good. Okay,” is apparently about as enthusiastic as the Oscar-winning director gets after a successful take.
But Zendaya managed to earn something far more elusive: a “perfect” take.
“Tom [Holland] and I were obsessed with this. She got a ‘perfect’? I’ve never even gotten a ‘great.’ She got a ‘perfect’?” Damon, 55, recalled.
The actor, who plays Odysseus in the upcoming epic, admitted the compliment sparked ongoing jokes between him and Holland, who plays Odysseus’ son Telemachus. “He and I bi*ched about it for the entire rest of the film. ‘Did you get anything today?’ ‘No, I got a ‘good’ – moving on.’”
The feat becomes even more impressive given that Zendaya was juggling four different projects at the time of filming: The Odyssey, Euphoria Season 3, Dune: Part Three, and The Drama.
“I remember being on set for Euphoria; it was a night shoot at a ranch. I was so tired, but I was also learning my Chakobsa lines for Dune,” the actress, 29, said. “It’s not like I have a lot of lines in The Odyssey, but I was working with Christopher Nolan! The most embarrassing thing in life would be messing up my lines, which did happen once,” she admitted.
Luckily, Nolan had nothing but praise for Zendaya’s professionalism and “grace” during the demanding shoot, calling her “a true movie star, but also an incredible actor.”
Zendaya portrays the goddess Athena in the upcoming film, which is based on Homer’s ancient Greek epic. The ensemble cast also includes Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron.
The Odyssey is set to hit theatres on July 17, 2026.
Charlie Heaton is officially stepping into the Shelby family business.
The Stranger Things star has been revealed as the adult version of Charles Shelby, the eldest son of Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby, in the upcoming Peaky Blinders sequel series.
Netflix and the BBC unveiled the first-look image of Heaton in character on Friday, May 22, finally solving the mystery surrounding his role after his casting was announced last month. And judging by the photo, Heaton looks right at home in the gritty world of the Shelbys.
The new series takes place a decade after World War II and follows Charles after years away from the notorious family empire. According to the official character description, Charles fought in a violent war before attempting to leave the Shelby lifestyle behind and embrace a quieter life. But the story teases a familiar question for the crime dynasty: “Can you ever escape your own blood?”
The series will also see Jamie Bell take over the role of Duke, Charles’ half-brother, previously played by Barry Keoghan in The Immortal Man — the new Peaky Blinders film which came out in March.
The casting marks another major Netflix role for Heaton after five seasons playing Jonathan Byers on Stranger Things. New additions to the Peaky Blinders universe also include Jessica Brown Findlay, Lashana Lynch and newcomer Lucy Karczewski.
Production on the series is currently underway in Birmingham.
Air India has launched an investigation after two of its planes were involved in safety incidents within a span of 24 hours, raising serious questions about the carrier’s aviation safety standards.
India’s flagship carrier’s flight AI2802, carrying 171 passengers, made an emergency landing at Delhi Airport after one of its engines caught fire. The cockpit crew received the fire alert, which was later confirmed to be authentic, prompting pilots to make an emergency landing.
Airbus A320 was coming from Bengaluru on Thursday night. The passengers aboard were evacuated safely and no injuries or fatalities have been reported.
The cause of the fire remains unknown.
The airline said, “Air India is immediately initiating a full investigation into the cause of the incident in coordination with the relevant regulatory authorities.”
Earlier, a flight from the same carrier was grounded after an alleged tailstrike at Bengaluru airport.
Airbus A321, coming from Delhi, experienced a tailstrike while landing; however, the pilots managed to safely land the plane and all the passengers and crew disembarked normally.
For the unversed, a tailstrike occurs when the rear underside of an aircraft makes contact with the runway during takeoff or landing.
These incidents come just a year after Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashing killed 241 of 242 passengers last June.
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