THEY were one of Hollywood’s biggest power couples in the late 90s, constantly making headlines with glamorous red carpet appearances.
But, behind the scenes, Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Diddy” Combs – who dated from 1999 to 2001 – were far from love’s young dream.
Pictures of J Lo in a blazing row with the disgraced rapper on the same night a lawsuit claims he and Jay-Z took turns raping a drugged 13-year-old girl have resurfaced this week.
Jay-Z has denied the allegations.
Taken at the 2000 MTV VMAs afterparty, the pair seem to be locked in a fiery row as the singer was seen scowling at Combs in the middle of the crowded party.
The lawsuit against Diddy and Jay-Z claims an unidentified female celebrity watched on during the alleged rape.
While there is no suggestion that Jennifer Lopez is the mystery celebrity or was in any way involved, the timing of the picture has raised questions.
What is certain is that this row was just one of many for J Lo and Diddy, with the On The Floor singer confessing their turbulent relationship sent her “whole life in a tailspin” after they split in 2001.
“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… nobody knew about it.
“It was very tempestuous. Towards the end it was emotionally exhausting. It was good that I was young.”
J Lo and Diddy met while filming the music video for If You Had My Love in 1998, not long after Jennifer had got married to her first husband, producer Ojani Noa.
Jen and Ojani got divorced that year and, while there’s no suggestion of an overlap, her ex-husband blamed Diddy, in part, for the split.
She was already famous when he met her, but she became a superstar as soon as If You Had My Love was released in 1999, and Ojani started to feel like “Mr Cinderella,” while Diddy was producing her album.
He told the Mail on Sunday: “She went from Jen to being J Lo, this big business bringing in millions.
“She had all these new people around her, all wanting to make money off her. I would call and an assistant would say, ‘Sorry, she’s not available.’”
Things got worse as photos of Jen and Diddy circulated, and Ojani claimed she was discouraged from starting a family.
Ojani said: “I rang Jen and asked why she was going out with him on dates and she said, ‘It’s just business. This is what I’m being told I have to do.’
“I was jealous and would scream, ‘But you are married!’
“We wanted kids, we discussed having kids. Then she told me she couldn’t have a baby because it would interfere with her career.”
By 1999, Diddy and J Lo were officially a couple.
But Jen has claimed Diddy doggedly pursued her, calling her regularly and quickly confessing his love for her.
She said: “I kept my distance from him, but then he kept calling me and I guess it was fun at first.
“He’s from New York, I’m from New York, we just speak the same language, and we both love music.
“He guided me and was very sweet at first.”
Both J Lo and Diddy were at the top of their game. They attended every awards show together, most famously the Grammys in 2000, when she wore her iconic low-cut, green, tropical Versace dress.
At the time, Diddy said they wanted to use fashion to “really change the game”.
But they weren’t without controversy.
In December 1999, the couple were arrested over a row at a club that ended with a shooting that left three injured.
J Lo, Diddy, and his bodyguard Anthony ‘Wolf’ Jones led police on a chase through New York City that ended with police finding a stolen gun inside the car.
As a result, they were all arrested, and J Lo spent 14 hours in a police station being questioned before all charges against her were dropped.
Now-retired NYPD Detective Derrick Parker, who was at the Midtown South precinct when they were brought in, told the New York Post: “They had J Lo handcuffed to a pole.”
A source added: “She was crying all over the place, in the squad room… She was just upset about the whole thing.”
Following a week-long trial, Combs and Jones were acquitted – with claims Diddy bizarrely sacrificed a bird on the morning of the verdict.
The rapper’s former bodyguard Gene Deal claimed to have watched the alleged incident, saying the star dropped to his knees and began praying with a man in Central Park.
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.
Jennifer Lopez
“Next thing I see, is this smoke just going back and forth around (Combs), I guess it was sage or something like that,” he recalled.
Gene claimed Diddy then grabbed a white bird from a cage, which belonged to the man, and “threw it up in the air.”
He continued. “The bird just fell to the ground, boom, like it was a brick. I was like, ‘Oh, s***!’ …The bird died, man…the bird didn’t even move. (Combs) just walked away from him real quick.”
Gene claimed this odd ritual was conducted in the belief that it could influence the outcome of a trial.
But Natania Reuben, one of the three people shot during the altercation, maintains Combs was the one who shot her that night
Jennifer has since said: “It was an unfortunate situation.
“We were somewhere we shouldn’t have been. It was a bad situation, and any bad situation that involves celebrities, people run with.”
The writing was on the wall for a long time.
In 2001, while they were still together, J Lo even opened up about how Diddy would use her first marriage breakdown against her, threatening to “divorce” her despite not being married.
She told Rolling Stone: “A lot. He told me many times, ‘I want a divorce.’
“I would be away a lot, or he would… he couldn’t go far, whatever, but he would say, ‘So, where do I send the paper?'”
Later that year, J Lo and Diddy split, with the rapper blaming it primarily on their hectic schedules getting in the way of spending time with each other.
By The U.S. Sun's Senior Reporter Forrest McFarland, who has been reporting on Diddy's legal battles for years
BEFORE Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest, it had been highly speculated that the rap star would find himself in custody after he was repeatedly hit with disturbing accusations – and had two of his mansions raided by the feds.
His mounting legal troubles finally came to a head on September 17, when he was charged with three federal counts, including sex trafficking, for allegedly forcing victims to take part in drug-fueled sex parties he called “Freak Offs.”
Hours before his arrest, The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed the feds investigating Combs were secretly liaising with Tupac Shakur murder prosecutors on gangland activities.
The development also came after Combs was named 77 times in documents submitted by prosecutors in the Tupac murder case.
Aside from the Tupac probe, Combs was already facing a slew of lawsuits, including one he settled with his ex, Cassie Ventura, after she accused him of rape and abuse.
Disturbing hotel surveillance video from 2016 showed Combs chasing Cassie down and then punching, kicking, and beating her in a hallway.
Two months earlier, in March 2024, two of Combs’ mansions were raided by federal investigators, who seized three AR-15s, drugs, and 1,000 bottles of lube which were part of his “Freak Off” supplies.
In addition to his federal criminal charges, Combs also faces a handful of lawsuits with allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and sex trafficking dating back to the early 1990s.
Music producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones filed one suit in February 2024, claiming Combs forced him to hire sex workers and participate in sex acts while he worked on his latest album.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the federal sex trafficking charges against him, but his battle is far from over.
He faces life in prison if he’s convicted on all counts.
Jennifer also noted they had different interests, with Diddy enjoying going out clubbing while she was a “homebody”, who liked to keep details of their relationship “sacred and private”.
Diddy tried to persuade J Lo to give him another chance, allegedly paying employees to “camp outside MTV’s TRL studios with signs to win her back”, according to a report in Rolling Stone.
But she was having none of it.
Tellingly, when quizzed about a potential reunion by TV presenter Wendy Williams, Jennifer’s mum gave a hand motion that appeared to say “it’s done” according to observers.
And two years after the split, Jennifer admitted their relationship ended due to him being unfaithful, with her confessing she “never caught him” cheating on her, but still “knew” that he did.
She told Vibe: “He’d say he was going to a club for a couple of hours and then never came back that night.
“It was the first time I was with someone who wasn’t faithful. 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.”
Another reason for Diddy and J Lo’s split is, by his own admission, he never fully got over his ex Kim Porter – with whom he had a son, Christian, now 26, when he met Jennifer.
In fact, the whole relationship may have actually been a ploy to win her back.
Despite calling J Lo his “perfect match,” when discussing their relationship, he added: “I figured, ‘I’ll give it a shot, and maybe Kim will catch on that I’m really into her and want her too.’”
His plan worked. Combs got back with Kim in 2003, and welcomed twin daughters D’Lila Star Combs and Jessie James Combs, with her in 2006.
And they both slammed J Lo and Diddy’s relationship as a moment he got “caught up in the hype,” with Kim dismissing the romance as “not real”.
Diddy added: “I got caught up in the hype. I was still in love with Kim.”
Kim and Diddy split for good in 2007, and she sadly died of pneumonia in 2018, at the age of 47.
While J Lo went on to marry and divorce another three times – to Chris Judd, Marc Anthony and Ben Affleck – Diddy has never tied the knot, and doesn’t plan to either.
He said he’d prefer a “love contract like Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell” rather than a marriage.
