In his apology video, Sean Combs made sure to look pitiful

Sean Combs apologised on Instagram. Screen shot: Diddy/Instagram. Illustration: Just So

About 48 hours after CNN shared a 2016 CCTV footage of Sean Comb’s shocking assault on one-time girlfriend Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, the rapper posted an apology video on Instagram. He said: “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life.” Mr Combs had not acknowledged any gloominess, and denied being physically abusive to Ms Ventura, even after she filed a lawsuit in 2023 against him for years of “repeated physical and other abuses”, as CNN reported. The day after the filing, both settled the suit, surprising those following the case with the unusual haste. Mr Combs spoke nothing of it after that. There were no references to times that were dark. Or, assaults in hotel corridors. It is easy to think that Mr Combs was apologetic because that disturbing video was made public.

In the IG reel, Mr Combs did not look like a fashion mogul that he fancied himself to be or a fashionable anyone. He spoke glumly, trying to convey deep regret; his eyes sometimes avoiding the camera. He wore a creased, latte-coloured T-shirt with a wide crew neck that was not ribbed. It look like an undershirt. A kin of the wife-beater? It could have been a Uniqlo Airism top, too, with its characteristic self-fabric collar. A modal athleisure tee. Or something that he wears to sleep. It was, for sure, more than the white hotel towel he wore in that incriminating video from the CCTV recording. He was now trying to appear nondescript, not allowing the clothes—or the lack of them—to say more than what he was stating. It might have worked, if the apology was not shamefully belated.

Without the distraction of fancier attire, he said verbally—and textually—to his IG followers that number a staggering 19.9 million, “I’m truly sorry”. But it is not clear if Cassie Ventura was one of them. Nor, can we be certain if he apologised to her personally at all. Mr Combs refered to the kicking and the dragging of Ms Ventura on the floor that the world saw as “inexcusable”. He said he “takes full responsibility for his actions in the video”. Although he claimed that he was “disgusted then when [he] did it”, he was not appalled enough then to admit that he was in a violent rage. The apology was only exigent now. However pitiful or wretched he looked, he did not appear remorseful. He seemed afflicted because he was caught: On camera, with cruelty that was clear to see.