After filing an unsuccessful lawsuit against NBC-TV over the 2025 documentary ‘The Making of a Bad Boy,’ Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been ordered to repay the defendant’s legal fees.
According to Billboard, the embattled rapper must reimburse the $478,000 that NBC spent convincing a judge to dismiss the defamation lawsuit earlier this year.
Alleging ‘The Making of a Bad Boy’ advanced a “false narrative” that he was involved in the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and Kim Porter, in early 2025, Combs sued NBC for $100,000,000.00
In April, Judge Phaedra F. Perry-Bond ruled that the television network had followed the proper journalistic standards by making clear that Combs had denied all such claims and that the interviewees who voiced the theories had their own biases against the now-imprisoned mogul.
Under New York’s anti-SLAPP statute, which quickly disposes meritless cases that threaten First Amendment-protected free speech, the judge threw out the fallen musician’s lawsuit, and according to that law, a successful defendant can recoup the legal fees that they spent in the process. In this situation, the judge ruled that NBC qualifies for attorney fee reimbursement.
However, because he found that the number of hours billed by legal firm Gibson Dunn were “excessive”, he reduced the total amount due from $990,000.00 to $512,000.00
Though he’s appealing the sentence, arguing it was unduly harsh, Combs is currently serving prison time for arranging cross-country prostitution events. In addition, the Bad Boy Records founder still faces dozens of ongoing civil sexual misconduct lawsuits, in which he denies all wrongdoing.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Freelance photographer Richard Burdett (Website)