A former backup dancer for Sean “Diddy” Combs revealed in a Instagram video Wednesday that she was once the victim of a “horrific” incident while she worked for the disgraced musician in the 1990s, adding that she quickly learned to “avoid him at all costs.”
Tanika Ray, a 52-year-old ex-host of Extra, dished on her experience just days after federal agents burst through the doors of two of Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami, reportedly in search of evidence tied to sex trafficking.
“I just knew to avoid him at all costs,” she wrote in a video caption, adding, “Nothing that is happening is surprising.”
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Ray declined to share exactly what she experienced with Combs, but said she always kept her space even as they crossed paths professionally. That included her being on a plane with him during his Citizen Change campaign, which he founded to urge young voters to get to the polls in 2004, and in subsequent interviews with him when she was at Extra.
Ray’s post came just hours after the former MSNBC host Touré shared a harrowing story about a relative’s experience with Combs, in which he alleged the rapper ordered his relative, one of Combs’ interns, to stay the night with him or else he’d terminate the internship.
Ray said she’s remained mum on what she knew about Combs for decades because she feared the fallout of revealing her story would harm her more than it did Diddy.
“If I told my story in 1996 then what?” she wrote. “Ladies keep space to heal and move on is key... Shame on all those men that let this continue. Shame on me maybe for prioritizing my mental health some would say. But after working in a place that snatches souls… mine is in tact and of the light. I saved myself.”
Ray added that “Cassie got it,” a reference to a lawsuit filed against Combs by his ex-girlfriend and fellow R&B singer Cassie Ventura. She privately settled with Combs in November, a day after she accused him of subjecting her to sexual and physical abuse for years.
That lawsuit appears to have been the start of Combs’ fall from grace. Shortly after, he was sued by two other women who levied similar allegations against him—and he now appears to be in trouble with the feds.
Liza Gardner, one of Combs’ accusers, said she was just 16 years old when Diddy and another musician took turns raping her and a friend in 1990. A federal indictment has not yet arrived for Combs, but he’s since become a pariah in an industry that once embraced him as a legend.
Even the controversial Kanye West reportedly blew Combs off earlier this month at Rolling Loud, with TMZ reporting that West ignored him as he was backstage, rejecting a request from Diddy to say “what’s up” to him.
Then, on Thursday morning, the rapper Al B. Sure! publicly dissed Diddy and reached out on Instagram to his son, who was raised by Combs, telling him to “come home” to his “biological” dad.
Combs had denied all wrongdoing through his representatives ahead of this week’s raids, but has yet to address the snowballing allegations against him from this week.
