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Aubrey O'Day opens up about disturbing Sean "Diddy" Combs allegations, and her hopes of "speaking for the underdogs"

By
Jericka Duncan
Jericka Duncan
National Correspondent; Anchor, "CBS Weekend News"
Jericka Duncan is a national correspondent and anchor of the "CBS Weekend News." She's based in New York City.
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Jericka Duncan

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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."

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