Diddy’s mom told him his dad died in a car crash when he was 3, but he figured out the truth years later

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A lot of skeletons in Sean 'Diddy' Combs's closet are finding their way into the public eye after he was arrested on a series of disturbing charges.

The music industry titan has been accused of sex trafficking and racketeering, facing multiple allegations and lawsuits for sexual assault and rape. The charges have brought back stories from his past, including his longstanding ties with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, LeBron James, and Usher — alongside tales of his bizarre "freak off" parties.

But perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part of Diddy's story goes back to his early years and the mysterious death of his father.

Diddy’s father's death casts a shadow over his childhood

Diddy’s father Melvin Earl Combs was a drug dealer in Harlem during the height of the opioid epidemic in the '70s. He reportedly moved in the same circles as Frank Lucas, the notorious gangster portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film 'American Gangster', according to Find A Grave.

When Diddy was just three years old, his father died in a fatal shooting after allegedly being mistaken for an informant. The young rapper’s mother Janice Combs tried to protect him from the harsh reality of his father's life and told him that he had died in a car accident. 

But even as a child, Diddy sensed that something was off about his mother’s story. Years later, he reflected on his suspicions in an interview with O, The Oprah Magazine. "Even as a kid, I put two and two together," he said. "I noticed that guys from the streets in Harlem always seemed to know my family's last name. 'I used to run with your father', they'd tell me. All my uncles were street hustlers as well."

Diddy’s quest to understand what really happened to his father took him to the Founders Library in Washington, DC. In a speech at Howard University in May 2014, he recalled the moment he pieced it all together. "My mother always told me that he died in a car accident. But something about that just didn’t feel right. Something was in my soul that was telling me otherwise," he explained.

Using the library’s microfilm, Diddy combed through old newspapers and found a damning report about his father in the Amsterdam News. “I used the microfilm at Founders [Library] to search through all the newspapers. And 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. Right there in that library, I realized there’s nothing greater than a mother’s love and desire to protect her child," he remembered.

Janice Combs stands by her son Diddy amid controversy

Even with all the chaos surrounding Diddy's recent arrest, his mom Janice Combs is sticking by him.

According to BBC News, she’s insisting that he’s not the "monster" that the media is painting him as. She claims he’s the victim of a bunch of lies and a skewed narrative.

Janice has always been Diddy’s rock. After his father died, she raised him as a single mother in Mount Vernon, New York, where they moved after living in Harlem. She made sure Diddy stayed connected to his roots, bringing him back to Harlem to visit his grandmother.

Diddy’s never been shy about how tough his early years were, talking often about the struggles and poverty that shaped him. His mother’s efforts to hide the brutal truth about his dad from him was her way of protecting him, even if it took him years to fully understand why she did it.

At the moment, however, Diddy’s facing some serious charges—over 100 lawsuits for sexual assault and r*pe—and he’s currently remanded in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.