Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers has filed a $60 million lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging the disgraced rap mogul sexually harassed her and stroked her breasts during filming of the reality show.
In a complaint filed on Friday (February 28), R&B singer Rivers claimed that after she refused Combs’ alleged sexual advances, he blackballed her from the music industry.
She joined more than a dozen other plaintiffs who filed separate claims against the rapper yesterday, ahead of the two-year lookback window closing for good on otherwise expired claims under the New York City statute known as the Gender Motivated Violence Act.
Per Rolling Stone, Da Band singer Rivers, who went by Sara Stokes on the show, alleged Combs controlled her sleep, belittled her eating disorder, yelled at her and forced her to do manual labour, including an incident where he allegedly forced Rivers and her bandmates to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn – a distance of roughly eight miles on foot – and back to bring him cheesecake.
Aside from the “inhumane” working conditions the suit mentioned, Rivers also alleged she was sexually harassed by Combs, citing a humiliating moment where the music exec was said to have inspected her backside and told her “everything needed to get firmed up.”
Another alleged encounter the suit named as battery sees Rivers claim that Diddy had cornered her in his recording studio, blocked her with his right arm and asked if she needed anything “in a low, sensual voice”. She goes on to allege Combs “ran his left hand across her breasts while repeating the phrase if she needs anything to let him know”. Rivers said was left in shock and bolted.
“No matter how many lawsuits are filed – especially by individuals who refuse to put their own names behind their claims – it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone,” representatives for Combs said in a statement sent via Rolling Stone yesterday.
Rivers also claimed that despite appearing on three seasons of Making the Band from 2002 to 2004, she was never compensated. Rather, she claimed the band members were given $5,000 in cash after tour performances.
She alleged the only time she received a check was after being “pressured” to sign a publishing agreement with a company owned by Janice Combs, Diddy’s mother. “Diddy made it known, if plaintiff did not sign, the group would not continue,” the lawsuit said. In exchange for her signature, Rivers alleges she received a one-time payment of $25,000.
She continued to claim that her rejection of Combs’ sexual advances, her questioning of contracts and a refusal to fulfil a Bad Boy directive that she pose for Playboy magazine culminated in her being fired by Combs, and the whole group disbanded.
Rivers alleges that after she was banished from Bad Boy, her attempts to continue her music career were thwarted by Combs, who had reportedly interfered with a potential offer from Capitol Records, later learning that Diddy had “personally called executives at the label telling them not to sign” her.
On Wednesday, (February 26) a male escort from Florida filed yet another lawsuit against Combs claiming the rapper sexually assaulted him in 2012.
Combs was arrested and charged with crimes including sexual trafficking and racketeering last September and is currently in a federal jail awaiting trial, and has consistently denied all allegations raised against him.
Elsewhere, one of Combs’ lawyers recently quit the rapper’s forthcoming criminal sex trafficking case set for May 5.
For more help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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