Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers has sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging the mogul sexually harassed her and once stroked her breasts during the course of filming the hit MTV reality show. After refusing her boss’ alleged sexual advances, Rivers claims Combs retaliated against her and blackballed her from the music industry.
The R&B singer, who was part of the group Da Band, described what she claims was a hellish filming experience in a $60 million lawsuit filed Friday in New York. Rivers, who went by Sara Stokes on the show, claims Combs controlled her sleeping schedule, mocked her eating disorder and forced her to do manual labor, including the time he made the bandmates walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back to bring him a cheesecake.
Beyond what the suit calls “inhumane” working conditions, Rivers claims she endured Combs sexually harassing her. The music executive would allegedly make humiliating comments about her physical appearance, including once inspecting her backside and remarking “everything needed to get firmed up.”
In an encounter that Rivers labeled as battery, she accused Combs of cornering her in a recording studio and asked “in a low, sensual voice” if she needed anything. He then “ran his left hand across her breasts while repeating the phrase if she needs anything to let him know,” her lawsuit claims. Rivers alleges Combs relinquished his alleged seduction attempt when he saw she was uncomfortable. Rivers says she quickly left the studio.
The 148-page complaint names more than two dozen defendants, including Combs’ mother Janice, Universal Music, MTV, and several other Bad Boy officials. (Rolling Stone has reached out to Combs, Janice Combs and Universal Music for comment.)
“This is yet another example of false claims being filed against Mr. Combs. 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 — man or woman, adult or minor. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason,” Combs’ rep said in a statement.
Despite around-the-clock filming, across three seasons from 2002 to 2004, Rivers claims she was never compensated for appearing on the Making the Band. Instead, she claimed the band members were only given $5,000 in cash after tour performances. The only other time Rivers says she received a check was when she was allegedly “pressured” into signing a publishing agreement with a company owned by Janice Combs. “Diddy made it known, if Plaintiff did not sign the group would not continue,” her lawsuit claims. In exchange for her signature, Rivers alleges she received a one-time payment of $25,000.
Rivers’ rejection of Combs, her questioning about contracts and turning down a Bad Boy executive’s suggestion that she pose for Playboy were among the factors that led to Combs’ abrupt decision to terminate Rivers and disband the entire group, her lawsuit claims.
She alleges that after leaving Bad Boy, her attempts to continue her music career were thwarted by Combs, listing three separate opportunities that disappeared. Rivers claims that she once had an offer on the table from Capitol Records, but claims to have learned that Combs “interfered and personally called executives at the label telling them not to sign” with her.
In addition to Rivers’ complaint, Combs was hit with two additional lawsuits Friday as a two-year lookback window was closing for otherwise expired claims related to New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act. The GMVA was passed in 2000 and amended in 2022 to allow victims to file otherwise time-barred claims between March 1, 2023 and March 1, 2025.
“With the deadline for New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act expiring tomorrow, it’s clear that opportunists are rushing to file last-minute, meritless claims,” Combs’ rep said. “Mr. Combs remains confident he will prevail in court.”
Aspiring musical artist Seven Güzel filed a 44-page lawsuit alleging Combs groomed and raped her on multiple occasions after they first met in 2017. Already a signed artist at the time, Güzel says Combs lavished her with praise, frequently invoked his power to influence her career, and regularly plied her with drugs and alcohol.
“During the first instance of sexual assault, Combs forcibly compelled plaintiff to perform oral sex before violently raping her. This occurred without her consent and despite her explicit refusal to engage in any sexual acts with him,” the lawsuit states.
Güzel claims she fell into a cycle of abuse with Combs, where he would alternate between sexually assaulting and humiliating her and then showering her with “excessive kindness.” She claims Combs coerced her into taking pills that rendered her unconscious. Per the lawsuit, Güzel says it happened once at a studio owned by Sony Music in New York and another time on a flight. She alleges she awoke on the flight to find Combs raping her and that Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, helped facilitate and cover up the alleged abuse.
Both Khorran and Sony were listed as defendants in the new lawsuit. Attempts to reach representatives for both were not immediately successful Friday.
Another lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Jane Doe who alleges she was 16 years old when Combs allegedly assaulted her in 1993. The plaintiff claims she had just given birth to a child shortly before the incident but managed to make her way to what she thought was an audition to be a backup dancer for Combs. She alleges she ended up at a home on Long Island where Combs handed her a drink that she believes was laced. Jane Does claims she was rendered completely unconscious and woke up in the back of a moving vehicle hours later with signs that she had been ”severely damaged and brutalized” in a sexual assault.
