![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Diddy-Main.jpg\")
Associate Editor Tom Bryant reflects on two very different meetings with Diddy in 2007<\/p>\nAssociate Editor Tom Bryant recalls his two meetings with shamed rapper P Diddy and the very different person he came across on both occasions<\/p>\n
17:04, 04 Jul 2025Updated 17:38, 04 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Associate Editor Tom Bryant reflects on two very different meetings with Diddy in 2007<\/p>\n
The instruction when it came was short and to the point. Diddy<\/a>, 2pm. Soho Hotel. Meet by the lift.<\/p>\n The rapper\u2019s handler proceeded to tell me I had a \u201ctight five-minute window\u201d whereby he would \u201cwalk and talk\u201d from our meeting spot to his waiting limousine in the hotel courtyard. It wasn\u2019t exactly the full sit-down interview I had hoped for after Diddy \u2013 Sean Combs<\/a> \u2013 flew into London to perform at the tribute concert for the late Diana, Princess of Wales<\/a>, in 2007.<\/p>\n But it came just four months after I\u2019d spent hours with him in Paris where, truth be told, he was much more generous with his time. On that occasion, he regaled me backstage with wild stories about his sex life<\/a>, including his love of 30-hour tantric sex sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cAs meticulous as I am with my work, I\u2019m more meticulous with lovemaking. I like to do it for a long time,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n It was a brash, outrageous interview. And it was followed by an even more eye-popping after-party in which he sent magnums of champagne to my table as scantily clad women gyrated around me. \u201cThere is no party like a Diddy party,\u201d he bragged. But as I met up with him weeks later in London, it was as if he was an altogether different man: quiet, thoughtful and wholly charming.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Diana Ross opens up in rare interview – ‘My five children really take care of their mum’<\/a> In a quietly spoken voice, Diddy told me how much it meant to him to play the charity concert and I remember being struck by how passionate he was about paying tribute to Diana\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n As we chatted next to his blacked-out car, which would shortly whisk him off to Wembley Stadium<\/a>, he sweetly thanked me for my support.<\/p>\n I came away thinking that the bravado of our earlier meeting was just performative and that this was the real Diddy: a true gentleman. It was perhaps this version of himself that Diddy might have wished to impress upon jurors during his eight-week trial in New York City<\/a>. But instead, the one that emerged was darker than anyone \u2013 including myself \u2013 could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n We heard the harrowing testimonies of Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura<\/a>, the star\u2019s long-time partner, and another victim referred to only as \u201cJane\u201d. Both women described being coerced into \u201cfreak-offs\u201d \u2013 forced sex acts with male escorts arranged by Combs while he watched and recorded them.<\/p>\n Ventura described to jurors how her then-boyfriend \u201cwould smash me in my head, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down\u201d. When asked how often the abuse occurred, she said: \u201cToo frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n The appalling domestic abuse was cited by the judge as the reason why Combs was refused bail and sent back to jail in Brooklyn<\/a>. He will remain there until his sentencing in October, when he could face up to 20 years in prison after his conviction on two counts of transportation to commit prostitution.<\/p>\n In reality, he could end up serving much less than that. The more serious charges \u2013 of which he was found not guilty \u2013 carried a life sentence.<\/p>\n![\"Diddy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_US-rapper-Kanye-West-L-poses-with-Prin.jpg\")
Diddy, right, with Kanye West and Prince Harry at the Princess Diana concert in 2007(Image: AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Diddy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_FILES-US-CRIME-MUSIC-ENTERTAINMENT-DIDDY.jpg\")
Abusive: Diddy with Cassie Ventura(Image: AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n