Sean “Diddy” Combs dated Jennifer Lopez after his relationship with Kim Porter. He explained that he felt Lopez would fit his lifestyle better than Porter, the mother of his children. Despite this, Diddy’s mentor, Andre Harrell, didn’t think Lopez was a good match for him. According to Harrell, Diddy was not able to fully relax when he was around Lopez.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Jennifer Lopez didn’t seem compatible to Andre Harrell
Diddy and Lopez’s relationship was highly publicized. Paparazzi flocked to them whenever they were out in public.
“They were like Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe,” Harrell told Essence. “Our generation had never seen anything like it.”
Diddy said he wanted to be with someone who appreciated that he was famous. He said that while he was dating Lopez, though, he realized that this was not necessarily a quality he wanted in a partner.
“With Jennifer, I was attracted to someone who had the same energy as me, but that isn’t necessarily the best,” he said. “Because I’m so aggressive, the best energy for me is someone who slows me down and makes me feel like I can breathe. It’s hard for me to breathe. When I’m around Kim I feel like I can do that.”
Lopez is highly driven and was at the top of her career when they dated. According to Harrell, Diddy needed someone calmer, like Porter.
“Puff is a superachiever,” he said. “Kim is all peace, love, and life. Puff finds calm in her presence. He never had that with Jennifer.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs shared why he wanted to date Jennifer Lopez
Diddy said that Porter’s calm was why he initially broke up with her.
“I’m used to applause when I walk in the room and she was just too cool,” Diddy said. “I would tell her, ‘I guess I’ll go be with someone else who’ll take care of me the way I want to be taken care of, who’ll be a little more aggressive.’”
He admitted that part of him hoped the relationship with Lopez would make Porter jealous.
“Jennifer was my perfect match in terms of energy,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’ll test the waters and hopefully Kim will see I’m serious and come running after me.’ So I was back at the house, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.”
She said the end of the relationship was very difficult for her
Diddy said he realized he and Lopez were not a perfect match. Lopez realized the same thing, but for different reasons.
“It was the first time I was with someone who wasn’t faithful,” she told Vibe Magazine (per Entertainment Weekly). “I was in this relationship with Puff where I was totally crying, crazy, and going nuts, it really took my whole life in a tailspin.”
She never got definitive proof, but she felt confident that something wasn’t right.
“I never caught him but I just knew,” she said. “He’d say he was going to a club for a couple of hours and then never come back that night.”
She broke up with him in 2001, amid his trial for a nightclub shooting. While this may have played a role in their split, she said they had long been heading in that direction.
“It wasn’t a great time in my life,” she told Vanity Fair. “It was scary. And we broke up many times before that, and got back together and broke up again, and nobody knew about it. It was very tempestuous. Towards the end it was emotionally exhausting. It was good that I was young.”
