A 2009 clip of Ellen DeGeneres asking Diddy about Chris Brown's domestic violence against Rihanna has resurfaced online after disturbing surveillance footage showed the Bad Boy Records founder assaulting Cassie.
In the resurfaced clip, Ellen asked Diddy about the rumors that Chris Brown had been hanging out at his home in Miami amid the domestic violence case and potentially hoping to get him back with Rihanna. "I wouldn't use my Twitter to talk about that, because that's somebody else's business," said Diddy, to which Ellen continued to press him to talk about it.
"You clearly have a lot of people going, 'Why would you do that? Why would you give Chris, a guy who hit a girl, and he's jet-skiing around... I don't understand," said Ellen, who admitted that she was a "huge fan" of his music but obviously has moral objections to domestic violence.
"I know both of them and it's my house, and I'm allowed to give my house to whoever I want to give my house to, that's number one," he replied. "Number two is that, I'm the type of person that... I don't cast a stone or cast a judgment on anybody. And so, if a friend ask me for a favor, I'm going to be there for a favor as long as I know that the energy of the favor is positive for two people to sit down and talk about a situation that they're in."
He said that he wasn't planning to "get involved" or "pass judgment," but he wanted to be there "as a friend during hard times."
"I think you are coming from a place of a friendship, and of kindness and support... It's just hard for me, and I don't believe in judgment either, but I don't want any girl out there thinking it's okay to go back to a guy who hit her," she said. Ellen said that she didn't want to put Diddy "in it," to which he replied, "You are putting me in it, so I'm gonna speak on it. I don't think it's right for anybody to hit anybody, at the end of the day."
He added that he believes adults "have to be honest" with themselves about the nature of certain relationships. "We know sometimes those relationships get ugly, and sometimes it doesn’t come out to the forefront the way this one has come out," said Diddy. "There’s a lot of stones being thrown, and we don’t know exactly what happened." During the exchange, Diddy looked notably uncomfortable.
"It isn’t right for him to put her hands on her, or her to put her hands on him," he said, while noting that he doesn't know "exactly" what happened during the assault, which led to Rihanna being hospitalized. "We don’t know what the problem is, but we need to pray for them. And we need to do things to support them and that’s all I want to say about it. Thank you."
Brown left Rihanna with visible injuries on her face following an incident on Feb. 8, 2009 in a car. He later pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to five years of probation, six months of community service, and one year of domestic violence counseling.
The resurfaced clip of Diddy's comments comes as disturbing surveillance footage showed Diddy throwing Cassie to the ground and kicking her at a hotel in 2016. Cassie, who previously dated Diddy, filed a lawsuit against the Bad Boy Records founder in 2023 and they settled the following day. She alleged he paid the hotel $50,000 for the surveillance footage in the lawsuit. His lawyer said the decision to settle the lawsuit, which also includes accusations of sexual abuse, was "in no way an admission of wrongdoing."
After the footage was shared by CNN, Diddy released a statement apologizing for the incident. "I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I'm disgusted now," he said.
Cassie recently shared her own statement, thanking fans for their support. "The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning," she wrote on Instagram. "Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past."
