Oscar award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has issued a response to allegations linking him to a group of people implicated in a civil lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The lawsuit, filed by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, alleges sexual harassment and assault by the Bad Boy founder and listed many celebrities, including Prince Harry, Yung Miami, 50 Cent’s ex Daphne Joy, influencer Jade Ramey, Kristina Khorram, a senior executive at Bad Boy Entertainment, as well as Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and his son.
The federal complaint filed in February and later amended on March 25 to include the “Jerry Maguire” actor, alleges that Diddy groomed the 39-year-old to be passed around sexually to his friends, including Gooding.
On the “PBD” Podcast with host Patrick Bet-Davis, the “Fighting Temptations” star not only denies the claims are true but suggests that the producer is grasping at straws by including various celebrities in an attempt to bolster his case. According to Gooding, he barely knows Diddy and only met him a handful of times with his girlfriend.
Mr. “Show Me the Money” says his girlfriend Claudine De Niro (the ex-wife of Robert De Niro’s son Raphael) used to be a publicist for Diddy, and she introduced them. She also took Gooding to the Bad Boy CEO’s yacht party that is in question.
“I had never met him til probably 2019/20,” he told Bet-Davis before explaining the circumstances of him being at the party where Jones was.
“[Diddy] invited us to his house. The pandemic was starting to ease, you know. I hadn’t seen him since that night,” Gooding said.
He further noted that on that New Year’s Eve, he and Claudine were party hopping, going from boat to boat, mingling with world champion boxer Mike Tyson and music juggernaut Drake.
“There’s probably 300 of us on the deck of P. Diddy’s boat on New Year’s Eve,” the actor said.
Gooding, who was named in several sexual harassment and assault lawsuits in the height of the #MeToo movement, said that the only reason why he was in proximity to Jones was to hear music.
“You want to hear P. Diddy’s new song? I said, ‘Yeah, sure,’” the actor continued. “Sit down next to him (he says he pulls up the live picture to show the host). They didn’t use this angle.”
Diddy accuser and music producer Lil Rod has added Cuba Gooding Jr. to his sexual assault lawsuit against the rapper.
— 🟢BandOfBrothersQ🟢 (@BandOfBrothersQ) March 26, 2024
Rodney 'Lil Rod' Jones Jr. accused Gooding Jr. of groping him while on Sean 'Diddy' Combs' yacht in January 2023, according to the filings.
The incident… pic.twitter.com/HVQ2JTovCl
The picture that Gooding showed the host allegedly shows how fast the moment was, the festive atmosphere and captured the loud sounds of music and merry.
“You made it look the way you wanted it to look. Here we are just listening to music. Finish, took the thing off, said whatever I said to him, and left,” he explained. “But this guy who’s suing him going after the money.”
“By the way, I don’t know P. Diddy’s life. I don’t know what he’s going through,” Gooding said. “We were acquaintances, just like I just showed you. Two to three times I’ve seen him.
Bet-David asked, “So why did he include you in it?”
Gooding surmised, “Because of the darkness of the other grab, grab, grab of the cases that I already had went through.”
On June 13, 2019, the “Radio” star, who faced six misdemeanor counts for alleged sexual misconduct, surrendered himself to authorities. The accusations against Gooding were filed by bartender Natasha Ashworth.
He failed to address the woman’s complaint, leading her to request a default judgment against him in January 2021. At that time, he had neither retained a civil attorney to defend himself nor filed a response on his behalf.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Alexander Tisch granted Ashworth’s request for a default judgment on the claims of assault and battery. Gooding avoided trial by pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor count of forcibly touching a woman in a New York nightclub in 2018, nearly three years later, on April 13, 2022.
Interestingly, Jones had been considering legal action against Diddy for some time, even trying to raise money through crowdfunding to sue.
Three weeks prior to filing his initial lawsuit that did not name Gooding, the producer publicly aired his grievances regarding alleged underpayment for his work on Diddy’s “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”
Jones’ frustrations stemming from a strained work relationship with Diddy first gained attention when he initiated a GoFundMe campaign, seeking donations amounting to $50,000 to engage legal representation for pursuing his share of publishing, royalties, and compensation for his contributions as a producer.
To date, Lil Rod has managed to raise just over $5,975.
Diddy’s legal team says this is proof that his allegations are a scam.
