Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs covers ‘Essence’ with daughters and shares how Kim Porter inspired him before her sudden death
Sean “Diddy” Combs has opened up about how he’s become a better dad and has stepped up as a father to fulfill his ex Kim Porter’s wishes to take care of their kids after her sudden death.
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The music mogul covers the May issue of Essence, and opens up about one of the last conversations he had with Porter before she died of lobar pneumonia. Diddy said he went to see Porter in the days before she passed and what she said set the course for how he would father his children in the future.
“Three days before she passed, she wasn’t feeling well,” the 49-year-old explains. “She had the flu, and she sent the kids over to my house so they wouldn’t get sick.”
“One night I was checking on her, and she was like, ‘Puffy, take care of my babies.’ She actually said that to me before she died.”
Porter died Nov. 15 in her in Toluca Lake, California home.
“I jumped into mommy mode,” Combs told Essence. “I sent people in every direction to try to make sure the kids would not hear about it on social media or the news.”
Diddy shares three kids with Porter, son Christian, 21, and twin daughters Jessie James, 12, and D’Lila, 12. Porter has a son Quincy from a previous relationship that Diddy helped raise as well.
One Love. pic.twitter.com/oSXdsvhQQ9
— Diddy (@Diddy) April 23, 2019
When news broke that Porter had passed, Diddy said he did his best to block his kids from getting the news on social media, so he set off to get to his children as quickly as he could.
“I had to get to the girls’ school and find Quincy, who was on set in Atlanta. Christian was on a plane, and I had his phone disconnected so he wouldn’t read it in the air,” Combs explains to the outlet.
“Every time Kim and I talked, it was about the kids. We’d check in as friends, of course, but we never had a conversation that didn’t include the kids. It was on some superhero s—. I ain’t even gonna lie. On some level, I knew she was training me for this. I knew that I had to be ready to do whatever I was supposed to do if something like this ever happened.”
Combs also has a son Justin, 25, and daughter Chance, 13, from previous relationships.
Combs admits it was traumatic time for the whole family.
“There was screaming and crying” he says when he heard the news. Just then he said he remembered what Porter ordered him to do in her absence.
—DJ Paul files lawsuit against Travis Scott over ‘No Bystanders’—
“I was crying out to God — and to her — and almost immediately Kim’s voice kicked in, and I could hear her saying, ‘Make sure you take care of my babies,’” Combs tells Essence.
Combs says he’s forced himself to focus on his family since Porter’s death and has been more present for his kids.
“Before this, I was a part-time father, you know? My family was always first, but there are countless times when I chose work over everything else. But every day I can hear her telling me to go and spend some time with the kids and make sure everybody’s all right, like she would do. I’m just a lot more present, and, most important, now my kids come before anything else in my life.”
