Sean “Diddy”Combs and his daughters are on the cover of Essence for its May issue, where he talked about the death of his ex Kim Porter, who passed away in Los Angeles from pneumonia in November 2018.
Porter and Combs shared three children together, and he’s often called her his soulmate.
On Thursday Essence released a portion of the audio footage from that interview, and at one point Combs broke down when he spoke about Black mothers.
In the caption of the audio, Essence explained exactly why they released the clip.
“@Diddy hadn’t planned to be this emotionally vulnerable, but he ultimately agreed to release unfiltered, raw audio of his interview with his friend Dream Hampton from the May 2019 issue of Essence,” the message read. “He felt that this piece’s potential impact on culture and anyone who has gone through or is experiencing a similar situation weighed more heavily than his personal fears.”
The clip starts off with Combs talking about this coming Mother’s Day, which will be the first one he and his family have experienced without Porter.
“This Mother’s Day is gonna hurt,” he told Hampton. “We definitely gonna celebrate all the mothers. We’re not gonna get in the way of that. But honestly, anybody that’s lost a mother, lost a soulmate, it takes time. They say time heals all wounds when it comes to your mother or mothers, I don’t think that’s the case.”
That’s when Combs broke down.
“I think we have the strongest beings,” he said and then started to sob. “When it comes to the categories of who’s the strongest beings on the face of the earth it would have to be Black mothers. I don’t think anybody can ever understand how hard it is to be a Black mother.”
Last week Combs posted a message that read “Off the grid” to let everyone know that he’s taken some time off, and he hasn’t shared anything on Instagram since. But that didn’t stop people from leaving encouraging words on his page after they heard the interview.
“I just heard your interview about Mother’s and it hurt my heart to hear you break down,” one person wrote. “I’m so sorry & I hope it gets better for you.”
“Oh my gosh you had me cry. You’re such a sweet and passionate strong man and a very good father,” wrote someone else.
