Aubrey O'Day likens experience with Sean 'Diddy' Combs to 'childhood trauma'

Aubrey O'Day does not feel "vindication" amid her former record label boss Sean "Diddy" Combs' legal trouble.

Combs, who has had eight civil lawsuits filed against him since November for sexual assault and physical abuse, recruited O'Day when he formed Danity Kane on MTV's "Making the Band" in 2005.

"There's no vindication when you're a victim of someone. … Anyone being exposed, or any truths being told, don't change the reality of what you experienced," O'Day, 40, told People on Saturday.

The singer added: "It's a forever thing that you have to wake up every day and choose to evolve past. It doesn't go away. It's like childhood trauma. We don't like to think it just disappears in our thirties, but really we start realizing how bad it really is in our thirties."

USA TODAY has reached out to reps for Combs for comment.

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Combs formed pop group Danity Kane with Aundrea Fimbres, D. Woods, Shannon Bex, Dawn Richard and O'Day. The band disbanded and reunited several times since their formation, most notably with O'Day being removed from the group in 2008, although she later returned.

In a December 2022 episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, O'Day alleged that Combs fired her because she wouldn't do things he requested "in other areas" besides music.

In September, thee rapper and music mogul, who founded Bad Boy Records in the '90s, agreed to give the label’s publishing rights back to all artists and writers who worked with the company, a source close to the situation but not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY in an email. Bad Boy artists such as Faith Evans, Mase, The Lox, 112 and the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. signed agreements to receive their publishing rights.

O'Day alleged on the "Only Stans" podcast in September that she did not agree to the terms of the music rights return because it required a nondisclosure agreement that she would never "disparage" the rapper or Bad Boy.

Combs has denied all accusations against him, although he has since apologized to ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura after a surveillance video obtained by CNN last month depicted him physically assaulting her at a hotel in 2016.

"Diddy did not apologize to Cassie. He apologized to the world for seeing what he did," O'Day wrote on X days after her former boss posted a video addressing the assault in the video.

The music mogul has yet to be charged for any of the alleged crimes, but unnamed sources told Rolling Stone and CNN that New York and federal investigators are closing in on Combs.

Sources told CNN in a report published Wednesday that possible witnesses have been notified that they could be called to testify against Combs in front of a federal grand jury in New York City. Rolling Stone similarly reported Tuesday that the Southern District of New York has interviewed potential witnesses for a sex trafficking and racketeering claims as well Combs' alleged connections to the Black Mafia Family cartel.

Several former Bad Boy music label employees and sources allege in Rolling Stone's report that Combs has a violent past that dates before he rose to fame. Sources also corroborated claims of sexual assault and abuse in lawsuits filed by Cassie, Joi Dickerson-Neal and Crystal McKinney.

Rolling Stone's report also includes new allegations that Combs physically assaulted his girlfriend while attending Howard University.