NEED TO KNOW
- Sean “Diddy” Combs requested that his assistants bring a very specific — and unusual — list of food items he required for traveling, former employees said during the rapper’s trial
- The mogul and his team used a Black Amex card to buy luxury items, as well as food items such as applesauce for his hamburgers and ketchup for traveling abroad
- Combs currently faces charges including sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution
Sean “Diddy” Combs had a very specific — and unusual — list of food items he required for his travels around the world, according to his former employees.
While testifying at Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Thursday, May 22, ex-employee George Kaplan described how the rapper and his team used a Black Amex card to cover everything Combs requested, from baby oil to yacht rentals and luxury villas.
When defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo questioned if those items included applesauce, Kaplan explained, “Mr. Combs loves applesauce, and eats it on the side or top of a lot of things.”
“Cheeseburgers?” Agnifilo asked, to which Kaplan responded, “Cheeseburgers being one of them.”
Combs is also obsessed with ketchup, David James, who was an assistant to the music mogul from 2007 to 2009, previously testified on Tuesday, May 20.
“Ketchup was a big item that he always needed for his food, so it was just the consistency, to create a consistent environment for wherever he was,” James testified.
He claimed that when they flew to the U.K., he always brought Heinz ketchup because “the tomato sauce didn’t meet Combs’ standards.”
James also said he regularly packed applesauce, detailing that it was a favorite food item for Combs.
During the trial, Agnifilo asked James, “Were you aware he put applesauce on his cheeseburgers?” He replied, “I was not aware, but I knew he liked applesauce.”
Combs’ former employees have testified about these unusual details as prosecutors attempt to learn more about the rapper’s alleged sex trafficking, racketeering and other charges — including transportation to engage in prostitution.
Federal agents found a number of noteworthy items during a 2024 raid of Combs’ $48 million Miami mansion that the musician allegedly owned — including AR-15-style rifles, some with their serial numbers scratched off, as well as loaded magazines, drugs such as MDMA and Xanax, sex toys and lingerie and 25 bottles of Johnson’s Baby Oil, as well as one rubber duck.
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Combs’ trial began on May 12 after he was initially arrested in September 2024. He has denied all of the allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges.
So far, jurors have heard from his former employees Kaplan and James, his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and her mother, a makeup artist and Kid Cudi.
The trial is expected to last several weeks, and Judge Arun Subramanian recently confirmed that the trial will most likely conclude before July 4. Combs is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. If convicted on all counts, he faces a potential life sentence.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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