Wendy Williams, the former radio host and daytime television personality known for her unfiltered commentary on celebrity culture, said she long warned the entertainment industry about Sean "Diddy" Combs' alleged behavior-years before the music mogul was arrested and indicted on federal charges including racketeering and sex trafficking.
"What is really weird is that I have been told by so many people, 'Wendy, you called it,'" Williams told The Daily Mail in October 2024. "Including some people from my family who have said the same."
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty after his September 2024 arrest in New York on five felony counts tied to what prosecutors described as a sex trafficking and racketeering enterprise. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and could be sentenced to life in prison.
In the hour-long special Trapped: What is Happening to Wendy Williams?, which aired on EXTRA, Williams' former colleagues described how she frequently called out Combs in her early radio career-allegations that, at the time, were largely dismissed.
"She knew what the streets were talking about, and she just wanted to deliver the message," said radio host Henry Brown. "Wendy's feud with Diddy goes way back because, keep in mind, they sort of came up together," added journalist Carlos Greer.
Their conflict, according to Williams, intensified in the 1990s when she began speculating about Combs' personal life on Hot 97. In 1998, she was fired from the station and has long believed Combs was responsible. "There were many situations back in the day in my career and it's all coming full circle," she said in a 2013 Vlad TV interview.
During her years on The Wendy Williams Show, Williams continued to comment on Combs' personal and legal controversies, including his relationship with Cassie Ventura. Following the release of security footage showing Combs physically attacking Ventura in 2016, Williams reacted bluntly: "To see this video on TV of [Cassie] getting pummeled... it was just horrific. But now you have to think, 'How many more times? How many people? How many more women?' It's just so horrible."
Williams also claimed on The Breakfast Club that Combs will "go to prison for life" and added, "You don't know the things that I know about Diddy back in the day."
In a 2005 radio broadcast, Williams recounted a confrontation with members of the girl group Total, then signed to Combs' Bad Boy Records, who she alleged tried to physically assault her outside a station-an incident she suggested Combs orchestrated. "Once upon a time, there was a music mogul who sent his all-girl group to beat my ass in front of the radio station. Fact!" she said during a 2019 episode of her talk show.
She also wrote in her 2004 memoir The Wendy Williams Experience that she had "a certain level of contempt for Puff" because he "single-handedly tried to ruin" her career. "The hell he put me through. I will never forget. But I don't hate him."
Even as the two appeared to make amends on her show in 2017, Williams' commentary remained sharp. On a 2015 episode, she mocked Combs' shifting stage names: "Don't tell me to call you Diddy, I know you as Puffy, that's it."
While Combs has denied all charges and maintains that any sexual encounters were consensual, Williams remains firm in her stance. "It is about time," she said.
