As Sean “Diddy” Combs awaits trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, he continues to receive support from his children.
The hip-hop mogul, who maintains his innocence, marked his 55th birthday in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center this week, where he had the option for “breakfast cake.” Outside the prison, his family gathered to celebrate him. They called Combs to sing happy birthday, complete with a cake and candles, then posted the recorded conversation with Combs to the star’s Instagram account.
Afterward, Christian “King” Combs, Combs’s eldest child with the late Kim Porter, announced that he was “taking over my Pop’s” Instagram account. The 26-year-old said he wanted to spread “good energy” and remind people of “all the positive things” his father has done as Combs faces the federal charges and the list of sexual assault lawsuits filed against him grows.
King went on to share three of his dad’s old music videos — “It’s All About The Benjamins” (1997) and “Victory” (1998) — and expletive-filled clips of Combs with Notorious B.I.G. Posted on Nov. 6, the day the presidential election was called, there was no shortage of reactions in the comments.
With Combs facing 15 years to life in prison — and an ongoing investigation — turning over his Instagram to his kids is a risky public relations move.
PR pro says it comes off as ‘insincere and cluelessly timed’
It’s no surprise that Combs’s children are supporting him during his ordeal.
While Combs’s seven children are from relationships with four different moms, they are a tight-knit crew. King, 26, and his half-brother Justin, 30, were at their father’s Los Angeles home when it was raided in March and handcuffed by federal investigators before being released. King, a rapper like his dad, and several siblings attended Combs’s court hearings, and posted their support of him online.
However, given that Combs is accused of abusing, threatening and coercing women and others and allegedly using guns, kidnapping and arson to control victims, the “good energy” Instagram takeover seems off the mark, according to a PR pro.
“Diddy’s kids’ posting on his Instagram is likely his self-directed ploy to lure public sympathy with a softer image, distracting from the negative press by displaying personal, relatable parts of his life,” Eric Schiffer, a PR expert and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told Yahoo Entertainment. “But his desperation to be seen compassionately backfired hard and is bad for Diddy since the perception is that it is phony, insincere and cluelessly timed alongside an American presidential election.”
With the wealthy music mogul dumping a fortune into his defense, the Instagram posts seem like they’re not part of a professionally managed PR plan.
Schiffer said it seems like Combs “doesn’t have a focused crisis PR plan,” but instead “an avalanche of ideas coming from his cell,” where he has been held since September awaiting his May 2025 trial.
If Combs were his client, Schiffer would find the strategy worrisome. “The last thing you want to do … is to create new complications with your reputation,” he said. “In this case, his tactics look manipulative and fake as hell.”
So what should the Combs kids do? “The family should support him through attendance at court and on their own social [accounts], but stay miles away from running their Dad’s Insta,” Schiffer said.
Legal expert calls it an ‘attempt to garner sympathy’
With the number of accusations against Combs growing, the effort to reframe the public narrative is part of his legal strategy. The Instagram posts show kids without their father, as he’s been denied bail multiple times. The message is they miss him and support him.
“We are familiar with the tactic that is being used by Mr. Combs through his children,” legal expert Judie A. Saunders, an attorney who leads the sex abuse and trafficking department at the law firm ASK, told Yahoo. “This tactic is used often. Specifically, Mr. Combs is attempting to launch a public relations campaign for the purpose of reframing and taking control of the narrative. Mr. Combs ineffectively used this tactic when he issued a videotaped statement in response to the video depicting him allegedly hitting, beating and kicking” his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Saunders called the tactic “one in which a defendant accused of vile acts is attempting to garner sympathy for himself and his children. The strategy is an attempt to make an alleged abuser more relatable to potential jurors. As a strategy, Mr. Combs must rewrite history and recast himself as a good father and family man.”
Saunders, a former prosecutor, says she’s not surprised that Combs’s children appear supportive of him. She also cautions that people who are abusive can have more than one side.
“As a trial attorney, I have seen cases where the most reprehensible perpetrators can be portrayed as both violent abusers and supportive youth leaders,” she said. “An abuser can be both anti-women, anti-child and have a family.”
