In the Netflix documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” members of Diddy’s inner circle recount their various experiences working with the late mogul in both professional and personal capacities over the years. For Aubrey O’Day, who signed her girl group Danity Kane as part of Diddy’s Making the Band in the early 2000s, it was the culmination of years of speaking out about her former boss and the trauma she endured.
“Today, I’m scared of the grieving process, sorting things out, or living with the limited perspective I have now while understanding the full context as the world watches through documentaries,” she told Variety. “When I woke up early this morning, all these thoughts started eating away at my mind.”
O’Day, 41, is in talks to take part in the documentary, which was directed by Alexandria Stapleton and executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. In late December, just days after the 2025 run of Danity Kane’s The Untold Chapter Tour concluded, she once again shared the stage with D. Woods and Orndrea Fimbres at the reunion. She explains that she didn’t realize how difficult it would be to rethink the fundamentals of her music career during the documentary’s release. The documentary tells how Diddy was fired from the group after refusing his sexual advances, and in shocking scenes reads a sworn statement from a woman who claims she witnessed Diddy sexually assault her while in an inebriated state.
But as she says, O’Day is using her appearance in the documentary to expand the conversation about abuse in and beyond the music industry. “I would like to see an end to this behavior overall,” she says. “To this day, we have open discussions about very similar acts, and we wonder what we as a society are going to do about them.”
You were one of the first people to speak out publicly about Sean Combs. It’s been going on for years, but the response may not always have been as warm and supportive as it is now. Do you feel justified in all this?
I keep coming back to it and my answer is, yes, I’ve been speaking out for 20 years. We did it the best way we could based on what we had to sign contractually to get out of our contract with 360. I didn’t do much at that time. I spent years figuring myself out and starting to build my career away from “Making the Band” and Danity Kane and Diddy. I began to understand the power of my voice differently, so I began to speak louder about it.
But even when I look back at something like “Celebrity Apprentice,” this clip always comes back around election time, of Trump praising Diddy and saying he’s the greatest and encouraging me to say that too, but I refuse to say that. And even then, I realized that I wasn’t that far removed from the situation, but I wasn’t going to compromise my integrity even in front of a man with all the power. So I think it was very consistent.
It was frankly very difficult for me to watch my role in the documentary. Because it’s not just what you’re talking about, it’s also because we’re watching you share it with the world. Why was it important for you to read the affidavit publicly?
When something like this happened, the first thing that happened in my world was that all the people who were making the documentary ran straight to me and offered me their world. And then we were having a conversation and I realized, “Oh, these people just want to make a hit piece with Diddy. These guys seem interesting, but I talked to all the producers, I asked to meet with all the editorial departments, and there’s no black representation here. How can they convey cultural work when there’s no representation on the production side or in the editorial department?” I didn’t trust it.
I talked to Alex a lot about everything and she was the last one to reach out and kind of sign a deal with Netflix. And she was the last person to contact me. But when I got to know her, she was truly an incredible human being. That she listened to me, validated what I said, listened to what happened to me before making the documentary, and advised me on this project that I had no experience of what it would be like to make a documentary. It sounded as if I was experiencing what a reality TV version of this would be like, but I knew it better.
So when I talked to her she was very patient and respectful. She knew and understood. She knew all the connections. She knew the world. And she’s a woman who has a lot of pressure being a mixed woman. She spends her life making cultural works and making people question whether she’s the right person to do it. She runs a small production company. So, with that much on her shoulders, for her to be a part of it, you know how huge this documentary has become. And it’s also a statement about a culture, an industry, and a time and place where so much was left unchecked. I could see that Netflix was taking the time to do their job of telling this history with sincerity and being very careful. I wanted to appear in a documentary that thoroughly tells the story of a man’s life, both the good and the bad.
What was your reaction when you were first given the affidavit?
The first thing I did was to confirm everything this woman was said to be. Who she was, how many children she had, what she did for a living, what her degree was. As the daughter of a lawyer, my stepfather is also a lawyer, and as the daughter of a lawyer, I wanted to make sure I did my due diligence to understand that this person was genuine. And it was around the time that[the authorities]contacted me and wanted to meet me that I became concerned. So, for me, the problem is that when I talk to them, when they leave, I say two things, which is, of course, don’t tell anyone you met with us until you get a subpoena or no subpoena and the trial is over. And two, you can’t talk to the victim because talking to other victims could make a huge mistake in the case. What if you both need to take a stand? There can be no communication between the two of you. Otherwise, the actual trial may be compromised. And at that point, even if you wanted to investigate this, it wasn’t a start.
So I just started reading all the civil cases. One thing I’ve noticed in all of them is instances where they start to feel dizzy. In all of them there were instances where these details occurred, and I kept trying to find myself in any of them. Among them, find something that is meaningful to you, such as “Oh, I felt the same way.” However, many of these cases have been extremely difficult to scrutinize. Some of them are very scary. You will feel sick for days. And in all the conversations I had with this woman over the years, her story never changed and she was talking to people she never talked to about getting to know me. And this all happened because[Orndrea]called me and said she saw me on “The Masked Singer” (in early 2025) and wanted to sing again. So I’m hoping to get an agent to organize a tour and bring them all back. But I also suffer secretly in this world. And when you combine those worlds, I didn’t even know how scary it would be for me, for my mental health.
What do you think will happen to Sean Combs once he gets out of prison and this part of his life is over?
I don’t know if the amount of time he spends in prison is long enough to fully do just the work you need to do to become a better person. How do I put this? Healing to be an effective and good type of person to get back into life, and what I’m most concerned about is that a lot of money and a great spin team could create the idea that he’s recreated a new version of himself again. And that worries me. Because there are always people around who can potentially be drawn into such situations.
You said how you didn’t realize that it would be a huge undertaking to do this reunion and release the documentary at the same time. Regarding the timing of the reunion, was it with the intention of carving out a new path after the experiences of the past few years, or was the timing just good?
For all the artists who have been through so much, it felt like it couldn’t end here. So I thought it had nothing to do with him and I just wanted to finish this year seeing the artists come back and shine. He didn’t build it. He didn’t make it. He didn’t put the show together. It was so obvious, whether you knew him or not, that he can still show resilience after such a traumatic period for so many people. The trial was very clear. The action was very obvious. It felt really heavy for so many people who had been abused in any way in this world. So I thought this tour would be a good way to end the year and bring the year back to music and the reason we all came together in the first place.
You teased a reunion with a silhouette. People weren’t sure who would actually be on stage. Dawn Richard has publicly stated that she did not know about the reunion. What kind of conversations took place behind the scenes to make it look like what people have seen on these shows?
So I contacted Dawn to come back. It originally started with agents contacting everyone. When I saw her release it, I held out my hand and said, “Come back.” The reason I won’t post receipts or delve into the issue is because we’ll go back to the divisive Diddy mentality of chaos. And I don’t want to give it a second thought. The important thing was not to give it a second thought. So I’ve always told her, “You’re welcome again,” several times. I didn’t touch the original announcement. At that point, I hadn’t even signed the contract yet, especially since if another girl wanted to come forward, she could leave space and let it happen. There were bandmates who didn’t want Dawn to come back. There were a few things going on, but for me personally, the motto of Danity Kane is that everyone is invited back every time. I listen to you and I will listen to you, but I want you to come together and talk to each other and find out where the problems need to be solved. And that’s how it was supposed to be. And it wasn’t done that way. And it had nothing to do with me.
But I contacted her many times. And of course, I mentioned her and Shannon on stage. Even though Shannon retired, we were still able to have her appear on the show. But I think when you’re put under Diddy, there’s so many things that he did for each and every person. As this documentary tells the world, everyone experiences it in different ways, and certain people feel it much more heavily than others. And if you build something in an unhealthy environment, you don’t know if it will reach a disease-free place.
The tour is coming to an end, have you talked about recording new songs? Is that something you’ve always wondered about?
no.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
