broken her silence on her relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs, acknowledging that while several accusers have come forward to allege the Bad Boy mogul was physically violent and sexually abusive to them, that was not her experience.
The City Girls rapper — real name Caresha Brownlee — sat down with her close friend, rapper Saucy Santana, for the Season Two premiere of her Revolt TV show, Caresha Please,on Thursday night.
“I can’t speak on something that I don’t know,” Brownlee explained, adding that she was no longer dating Combs. “I can’t speak on these allegations because I wasn’t around at the time. I don’t know that person, and that wasn’t my experience.”
The mother of two welled up at the start of the talk before addressing her relationship status with Combs, saying the past few months have been hard on her mentally. “One minute I’m happy, one minute I’m sad,” she said through tears. “One minute, I’m kinda like, ‘Fuck this shit.’ And then the next minute, I’m looking at my kids, like I didn’t bring us this far to go backwards.”
Brownlee and Combs were first linked in 2021, with Combs confirming they were casually dating when appearing on Brownlee’s show in June 2022. Weeks later, Brownlee proudly waved a “Go Papi!” sign as Combs collected his BET Lifetime Achievement Award. Although they attended the Met Gala together in May 2023, Brownlee downplayed any idea of a serious relationship, saying they had their “own situation.” “We’re still good friends,” she told The Cut. “But we’re single. That’s not my man.”
But Brownlee has largely stayed quiet on Combs after his ex-girlfriend of a decade Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a damning sexual abuse and sex trafficking lawsuit against him in November 2023. (Combs denied Ventura’s claims, and the parties reached a private settlement within 24 hours of the filing.) A flurry of other sexual assault lawsuits soon followed, including from music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who named Brownlee in court documents. Jones claimed in his lawsuit that Combs bragged about having Brownlee and other women on his payroll. Brownlee did not address Jones’ claims in the episode.
Brownlee said on her show that she actively distanced herself from Combs in the wake of the allegations. “When all these things came out, I just needed to take a break and focus on what’s important, which is me and my career and my family,” she said. “[I needed to] let him navigate and figure that out on his own because I can’t be caught up in that.”
When pressed by Santana if Combs had ever been physically violent with her, Brownlee said she had been a victim of domestic violence in two previous relationships, and it is something she “doesn’t stand for.”
During the interview, the rapper also addressed rumors that City Girls had disbanded — her rap duo with longtime friend Jatavia “JT” Johnson — confirming things “weren’t working out” and the two had grown apart. “I still look at her as family, but it’s not like we are on the phone, chatting every day,” she said. “I just want to move forward.”
Brownlee launched her popular show with Revolt in 2022 — the same media company Combs founded in 2013. After Ventura’s accusations, Combs stepped down from his role as chairman and sold his stake in the company in June. A spokesperson for Revolt said in a statement to People that Combs “was not involved in the day-to-day operations at the company” even before he stepped down.
Combs selling his shares came about a week after Rolling Stone published a six-month investigation into Combs’ history of violence that dated back to before his career began, with dozens of former friends, Bad Boy employees, and artists speaking out against the mogul.
