Howard University announced Friday the school would revoke Sean “Diddy” Combs’ honorary degree, originally conferred in 2014 to the now-disgraced rapper and music mogul.
The university reported its board of trustees had voted unanimously to return to Combs’ degree following the release of a 2016 video that showed him attacking his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the board’s statement read. “The University is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”
The video, released last month, showed Combs running out of a hotel room in a towel and chasing Ventura toward the elevator. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and threw her on the floor, kicked her, shoved her and dragged her by her sweatshirt. Later in the footage, he returned to kick her again and then threw an object from a nearby table at her.
The trustees’ statement also noted that the school would terminate a 2016 gift agreement with Combs, disbanding the scholarship that had been established in his name, returning his $1 million contribution and canceling a 2023 pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation. The statement added that no payments toward the 2023 pledge had been made, and there were thus no funds to be returned. Diddy attended Howard from 1987 to 1989.
Following the release of the video, he shared an apology in an Instagram video. “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” he said. “I was fucked up — I hit rock bottom — but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable.”
Combs and Ventura were romantically linked for over a decade. Last November, she accused the rapper of repeatedly raping and physically abusing her during the course of their on-again, off-again relationship. The lawsuit, which also named Combs’ label, Bad Boy Records, and Sony Music, claimed that Ventura was “trapped by Mr. Combs in a cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking.”
They settled the case shortly after the filing, but Combs has since faced multiple new lawsuits this year, accusing him of rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking. He has denied all of the allegations. In March, his Miami and Los Angeles homes were raided by Homeland Security.
