Singer Kelly Price is clarifying her comment offering “prayers” for Sean “Diddy” Combs after his apology for past behavior.
“For those who misconstrued, misinterpreted or just chose to put words in my mouth, this is for clarity,” Price, 51, captioned an Instagram video on Sunday, May 20. “If you choose to believe otherwise that’s your choice but I won’t let anyone call me out for something I didn’t do.”
She concluded: “I can’t offer redemption, forgiveness or Grace because my name is Kelly, not Jesus. Therapy+Jesus that’s doing the Soul work. What happens legally is up to the people who have that authority.”
Price, who made a name for herself as an R&B star in the 1990s, around the same time as Diddy’s rise, told fans on Sunday that she might remove the video — which was previously an Instagram Live — from her profile.
“I have not spoken about any of this stuff since it’s come out. I don’t stand with anything that is criminal. None of us can unsee what we saw,” Price said, in part. “It was really more of a warning. … I simply told him because I believed that he would hear it. I was pretty much telling him, do the soul work.”
She added, “I was basically telling him you gotta change your heart, you gotta change your mind, you gotta change your direction. … I simply was saying he had to do the work.”
Price told her followers that nothing would make her “be OK with doing something to someone else so horrific,” seemingly referencing the video of Diddy assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie, which has resurfaced online.
Days after the video of him and Cassie, 37, went viral, Diddy, 54, uploaded a video apologizing for his “inexcusable” behavior. The video has since received widespread criticism as Diddy did not apologize to Cassie by name. (Cassie’s lawyer Meredith Firetog slammed the apology to Us Weekly, saying it was “more about himself” than his victim.)
Price left a since deleted comment on Diddy’s post, saying her “sincere prayer” is that he finds “a change of mind and a change of direction.” Her comment led to major criticisms with some social media users accusing her of defending Diddy’s actions — which is why Price decided to host the Sunday Instagram Live.
“I told him, do what you need to do to get your soul right, brother. It’s up to the courts to decide what they do with him legally. I have nothing to do with that,” Price continued in her video, noting she was not being “a Diddy cheerleader.”
CNN obtained the 2016 security footage of Diddy appearing to drag Cassie down a hotel hallway during their on and off relationship, which lasted from 2007 to 2018. The clip was published on Friday, May 17.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” Cassie’s attorney Douglas H. Wigdor told Us in a statement at the time. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Cassie first accused Diddy of abuse and rape in a November 2023 lawsuit, which she dropped the next day. In the months that followed, more men and women have spoken out against the music mogul, who has denied all the allegations.
His homes were raided in March by the Department of Homeland Security in connection with an ongoing sex trafficking investigation. Diddy’s lawyer, Aaron Dyer, slammed the raids in a statement to Us at the time.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” he said, in part. “There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.”
