Photo Doesn’t Show Harris Attending Party with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

Claim:

A photo from 2001 authentically showed Kamala Harris attending an event with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Rating:

Context

The man photographed alongside Harris was Montel Williams, a television host and actor, not Combs. The hip-hop mogul’s face was edited into the picture, replacing Williams’.

On Sept. 17, 2024, an X user posted a photo (archived) they claimed showed a young U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attending a party with Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper and hip-hop mogul who was arrested the day before on sex trafficking charges.

The image, which spread on X and Facebook, showed Harris standing alongside a man and a woman while posing for photographers at an event. A number of X posts (archived here and here) claimed the image showed Harris standing next to Combs. 

(X user @scorpion920)

However, the photo had been digitally edited to include Combs’ face, therefore we have rated it as a fake.

Instead, the man she was actually next to was Montel Williams, an actor and television host. Combs’ face replaced Williams’ in the edited image.

Harris and Williams were attending a red-carpet event in 2001 alongside the TV host’s daughter, Ashley Williams. Newsmagazine TV program “Inside Edition” posted footage from the event on YouTube in November 2020.

According to the caption of a similar Getty Images photo from that day, the event was the eighth annual Race to Erase Multiple Sclerosis benefit at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California.

(Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images)

Social media users also claimed the video from the event showed Harris and Combs together.

Snopes has covered rumors about Harris and Williams’ relationship before, including verifying the same photographs of them at the 2001 event. In 2020, Williams said the following about Harris: “Kamala Harris and I briefly dated about 20 years ago when we were both single. So what? I have great respect for Sen. Harris. I have to wonder if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate?”

Combs was arrested in mid-September 2024 on suspicion of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and interstate transportation for prostitution. In March 2024, his properties were raided as part of an ongoing investigation. He also faced a number of court cases over sexual assault allegations. The rapper and mogul is in jail and awaiting trial as of this writing. 

Sources