Mere hours after getting yet another sexual assault lawsuit levied against him, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ latest accuser is already publicly speaking out.
Thalia Graves and attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference from her Wilshire law offices on Tuesday to discuss the civil complaint, which was filed earlier in the day in New York federal court and obtained by TheWrap. In this latest suit, the plaintiff claims she was drugged and raped at the rapper’s Bad Boy Records studio in Manhattan in 2001 and was subsequently humiliated when she, years later, learned the attack was filmed and disseminated without her consent — with Combs going as far as allegedly selling the video as pornography.
“The internal pain after being sexually assaulted has been incredibly deep and hard to put into words. It goes beyond just physical harm caused by and during the assault. It’s a pain that reaches into your very core of who you are and leaves emotional scars that may never fully heal,” Graves said through tears. “Some of the hardest parts of this pain are the shame and the guilt I have experienced that play a negative part in my ability to function properly. Being blamed, questioned and threatened has often made me feel worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”
“I go through spells of being distant and withdrawn that it’s sometimes so hard to leave my house,” she continued. “The trauma of the assault has taken a toll on my mental health. I’ve had PTSD, depression and anxiety — I’m emotionally scarred. It has been hard for me to trust others, to form healthy relationships. I even feel ashamed in my own skin.”
“I also suffer with physical problems such as chronic pain, sexual discomfort. The violation I have experienced during the assault has had lasting effects on my body, causing ongoing problems and complications,” Graves shared. “The combination of physical and emotional pain has created a cycle of suffering from which it is so hard to break free.”
“Often, victims do not speak publicly about the specific damages that criminal acts cause them,” Allred noted. “Some of the many reasons that victims do not speak out publicly about this include being ashamed or shamed for this, but we believe that victims should not be ashamed and, instead, those who committed the criminal acts against them should be ashamed and take responsibility for the harm that they have caused victims to suffer.”
In her lawsuit, Graves says she was lured to the studio under the pretext of discussing her then-boyfriend’s job performance as a Bad Boy employee. She believes a drink she was offered was spiked, which left her unconscious and ultimately bound and sexually assaulted by Combs and another defendant (who was intentionally not named in the press conference, though they are not a celebrity, Allred said).
Graves’ suit says the pair “mercilessly raped her” and left her with severe physical and emotional trauma, as well as eventual depression. Her lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a court order to destroy any remaining copies of the video, which she was “devastated” to learn about in November 2023.
“I am glad that he is locked up, but that’s a temporary feeling of relief,” Graves concluded her Tuesday statement.
Also in November 2023, Combs’ previous longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, aka Cassie, filed a lawsuit accusing him of repeated physical and sexual abuse. He denied the allegations and settled the lawsuit out of court the following day, but after federal authorities raided three of the rapper’s homes in April, hotel surveillance footage from 2016 leaked in May appeared to corroborate her claims. Since Cassie’s initial filing, numerous other alleged victims have come forward with similar lawsuits.
Representatives for Combs did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Allred did confirm she is representing other alleged victims of Diddy, though this is their first lawsuit.
Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a federal indictment for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges. His multiple attempts to be released on bail have been rejected and a trial date has not been set.
