Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ love story is one for the chaos books, think cheating scandals, gunfire, police chases, and a whole lot of drama. The former power couple’s rollercoaster romance is back under the spotlight thanks to J. Lo’s tell-all documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told and the chilling abuse allegations against Diddy by his ex, Cassie Ventura.
In her doc, Lopez opens up about being mistreated by past partners, saying, “I’ve definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things. Rough. Disrespectful.” While one source told the Daily Mail she wasn’t referring to Diddy, another insider told NewsNation, “He definitely manhandled her, but it’s a little low to bring this all up now. It’s kicking a man when he’s down.”
The disgraced rapper and Lopez first met in 1997 when she starred in his “Been Around the World” video. At the time, he was still with model Kim Porter, who later called Lopez a “temporary distraction with a big booty and a smile.” The messy love triangle only got messier when Diddy cheated on Porter with Lopez, all while Porter was pregnant with their second child. Meanwhile, Lopez’s then-husband Ojani Noa said she told him her outings with him were ‘just business.’ Spoiler alert: they weren’t.
But the relationship truly exploded in 1999 after a nightclub shooting in Manhattan. Diddy and Lopez were arrested after fleeing the scene, and police later found a gun in their car. He reportedly told his driver, “I’m Puff Daddy, I can’t take the gun.” Lopez was eventually cleared, but not before spending hours in custody and enduring some truly awful treatment, one officer even called her “Plain Jane-ish.” He was later acquitted, but his protégé Shyne wasn’t so lucky, serving 10 years for attempted murder.
Years later, a new civil suit claimed he once bragged that he was actually the gunman, and that Lopez carried the gun into the club for him. Cassie also accused Diddy of forcing her to carry firearms, allegedly to show how powerful and dangerous he was.
Despite all that chaos, Lopez still seemed friendly with her ex years later. She hugged Diddy at her Vegas show in 2018 and even joined one of his livestream dance parties during lockdown. Still, she’s been candid about their rocky romance. “We had this kind of crazy, tumultuous relationship that ended in a bang,” she told CBS Sunday Morning.
And the “bang” wasn’t just metaphorical. After they split in 2001, he tried to win her back in possibly the weirdest way ever, by releasing doves outside her house. Sadly, many of the birds did not survive the stunt. “It was a situation,” Lopez later said, laughing about how Halle Berry’s dogs ended up with some unfortunate chew toys. From gunfire to doomed doves, he and J. Lo’s love story had it all, passion, scandal, and one very messy ending.
