All About Diddy’s Parents, Melvin and Janice Combs — and What She Has Said About the Netflix Docuseries

Sean “Diddy” Combs was born to his parents, Janice and Melvin Earl Combs, in November 1969.

He was raised in different parts of New York, although the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper mostly has memories with his mom after his dad was killed in 1972.

“I don’t have a lot of memories of my father,” he told Revolt TV in 2013. “They say you can’t miss something you never had, that’s only a little ways right. There’s definitely been times as I’ve gotten older that I’ve missed my father.”

Following Melvin’s death, Diddy was primarily raised by Janice, a model and teacher’s assistant, in Harlem and Mount Vernon. N.Y. After Diddy’s arrest in September 2024, and multiple accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking against him, which he pleaded not guilty to, Janice defended her son.

“It is heartbreaking to see my son judged not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies,” she wrote in a statement shared by her attorney on Oct. 6. “To bear witness what seems like a public lynching of my son before he’s had the opportunity to prove his innocence is a pain too unbearable to put into words.”

On July 2, Diddy was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering. In October 2025, he was sentenced to 50 months in prison.

In the four-part Netflix docuseries, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Bad Boy Records co-founder Kirk Burrowes claimed that he witnessed Sean slap his mother after a tragic event in December 1991. Following the release of Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Janice released a statement claiming the series contained “lies” and “inaccuracies” about her son’s life.

Here’s everything to know about Diddy’s parents, Janice and Melvin Earl Combs.

Melvin died when Diddy was a child

Melvin died in 1972 when Diddy was 3 years old. Janice originally told the rapper that his father died in a car accident, but when Diddy got older, he discovered that Melvin was a drug dealer who had been shot.

Diddy only found out his father died from a gunfight when he started school at Howard University and looked up his dad’s name in the school’s library, he shared during a commencement speech in May 2014.

“When I typed in my father’s name and the day he died, I read in the Amsterdam News that he had been murdered in a drug deal gone bad,” he said. “Right there in that library, I realized there’s nothing greater than a mother’s love and desire to protect her child.”

In October 2013, Diddy told Revolt TV that his father was a “hustler,” which led him to learn early in life that there were “only two ways out” of a life of drug dealing: “dead or in jail.”

Janice put Diddy through private school

Following Melvin’s death, Janice raised Diddy on her own, prioritizing his education and ensuring he graduated from an all-boys Catholic school and attended college.

The two moved back to Mount Vernon, N.Y., where Janice was raised, and Diddy went between the suburb and Harlem, where his grandmother lived, as he grew up.

In a 2006 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Diddy shared that his mom took on the role of a father, while his grandmother acted like his second mother, and that shaped the person he became.

“My mother likes to spend time with me,” Diddy said. “She loves me so much, and she’s so proud of me. She almost killed herself to make sure I went to private schools, to expose me to travel.”

Diddy tried to help his mom date

Diddy shared in a 2022 livestream video that his mom was single and he’d taken her to strip clubs in the past. The two joked that they would make a dating show for her, but she’s too “picky.”

“Me and my mom talked about one time doing a dating show with her,” he said. “She’s so picky. She’s so picky they don’t stand [a chance].”

The rapper went on to say Janice “knows how to have a good time.”

He bought Janice a car and gave her $1 million in 2020

Diddy has been generous with his mom over the years, buying her a Bentley and giving her a $1 million check for her 80th birthday in 2020.

He posted about the day on his Instagram Stories, showcasing the black luxury car he had bought for her.

“I only exist because of this beautiful, hardworking, loving, hilarious, ass-whooping, always telling me the truth, genuine, smart, fly [and] absolutely amazing Black Goddess Queen!!” he wrote in the caption of his post.

Diddy continued, “Happy 80th Birthday to the best mother in the world! Love you forever and ever! ❤️ … and this is actually her at 80th … no filter … no edit 🖤!!!”

She defended Diddy after his arrest

In the weeks following Diddy’s arrest and not guilty plea, Janice released a statement pleading with the public not to make assumptions about her son’s guilt. She expressed that she was “profoundly saddened” by the allegations against Diddy and asked that he be allowed to “prove his innocence” in court.

Janice also referenced a November 2023 lawsuit brought forth by Diddy’s ex, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, in which she alleged the rapper raped and assaulted her. The lawsuit was settled within a day, but in May 2024, CNN released hotel surveillance footage in which Diddy could be seen physically assaulting Cassie, matching the description of a March 2016 incident mentioned in the lawsuit.

“I am not here to portray my son as perfect because he is not,” Janice said in her statement. “He has made mistakes in his past, as we all have. My son may not have been entirely truthful about certain things, such as denying he has ever gotten violent with an ex-girlfriend when the hotel’s surveillance showed otherwise.”

“Sometimes, the truth and a lie become so closely intertwined that it becomes terrifying to admit one part of the story, especially when that truth is outside the norm or is too complicated to be believed,” her statement continued. “This is why I believe my son’s civil legal team opted to settle the ex-girlfriend’s lawsuit instead of contesting it until the end, resulting in a ricochet effect as the federal government used this decision against my son by interpreting it as an admission of guilt.”

Janice was mentioned in Sean Combs: The Reckoning

In the four-part Netflix documentary Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Bad Boy Records co-founder Kirk Burrowes claims he witnessed Diddy slap and insult his mother.

The incident allegedly occurred in a Manhattan hotel room, following a fatal stampede in December 1991 at a celebrity basketball game Diddy promoted in New York City.

“He didn’t know what was going to happen, and I saw Janice question Sean,” he said in Sean Combs: The Reckoning. “He’s going into this music business thing. He just left school and now this extreme tragedy has occurred. She’s like, ‘Did he make the right decision?’ ”

Burrowes claimed he saw Diddy “put his hands on her. Call her a bitch and slapped her. He’s not looking back.”

After the Dec. 2 release of the series, Janice responded in a statement to Deadline, claiming that the documentary contained “lies” and “inaccuracies” about her son’s life.

“The allegations stated by Mr. Kirk Burrows [sic] that my son slapped me while we were conversing after the tragic City College events on December 28, 1991, are inaccurate and patently false,” Janice said in her statement.

“That was a very sad day for all of us,” she continued. “For him to use this tragedy and incorporate fake narratives to further his prior failed and current attempt to gain what was never his — Bad Boy Records — is wrong, outrageous and past offensive.”

Later in her statement, Janice requested that “these distortions, falsehoods and misleading statements be publicly retracted.”