Janice Combs, who’s 85 and the mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, isn’t holding back. She slammed Netflix’s new docuseries, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” calling out the streaming giant for pushing what she calls outright lies about her son’s childhood. She’s especially upset about how the show paints her as an abusive parent. The four-part series, which dropped on December 2, 2025, comes from Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and director Alexandria Stapleton. And honestly, it’s kicked up a storm, with people arguing all over again about how documentaries mess with the line between fact and someone’s personal story.

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A Mother’s Defense: Rejecting the Narrative

Speaking to Deadline on December 6, Janice Combs didn’t hold back. She called out Netflix’s docuseries, saying it’s just trying to mislead people and drag her family’s name through the mud. Janice, now in her eighties, insists the documentary isn’t telling the truth. She says it twists facts on purpose, just to make her son’s story sound more dramatic than it really was.

She’s especially upset about how the film shows her as a mother. Janice flat-out denied that she ever abused Sean. “They paint me as some kind of abusive parent. That’s just not true,” she said, her tone leaving no room for doubt. Instead, she described what it was actually like: raising her son alone, working multiple jobs—sometimes three or four at once—just to keep a roof over their heads and send Sean to good schools.

“I’ve said it before—I did everything I could as a single mom. I worked myself to the bone so my child could have a decent life and a real shot at education,” she explained. “I raised Sean with love and hard work, not abuse.” In her eyes, Sean was always driven and ambitious, always striving for more. She believes the documentary gets him, and their relationship, completely wrong.

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The Slapping Allegation: At the Heart of the Controversy

This whole mess really kicked off with a claim from Kirk Burrowes, a former Bad Boy Records exec. He says Sean Combs slapped his own mother during a talk right after the 1991 City College tragedy in New York. That’s the story stirring up the most heat in the docuseries, and Janice—Sean’s mother—isn’t having any of it. She flat-out denies it ever happened.

“The things Mr. Kirk Burrowes said about my son slapping me after what happened at City College on December 28, 1991, just aren’t true. They’re completely made up,” Janice insisted. She didn’t stop there, either. She called the whole thing exploitative, saying it twists a real tragedy just to add more drama.

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The 1991 City College stampede, which she brought up, was a terrible tragedy. Nine people died, around thirty got hurt, all during a basketball tournament Combs was promoting. Instead of treating this like the serious, heartbreaking event it was, Janice says the documentary just uses the tragedy to make its story seem more believable—even though, she says, it doesn’t really have the facts to back that up.

Then there’s the stuff about the witnesses. The documentary doesn’t stop at the slapping allegation. It brings in Tim Patterson, who says he grew up with Sean Combs, to talk about Janice’s parenting and what their home was like. Patterson claims Janice was violent toward her son and even held inappropriate parties at their house. Janice calls out these stories, saying they aren’t true. She says the documentary picked the worst possible things to show, ignoring anything that might go against their angle.

She puts it bluntly: Patterson’s comments are “untruthful and sensationalized to promote the series.” She sees a big gap between what’s being said and what she remembers. “On the contrary, I loved and cared for Sean. My memories of him growing up are of a respectful and diligent child and teenager.”

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This whole mess with "The Reckoning" isn’t just about what Janice said. Before the documentary even dropped, Sean Combs’ lawyers sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter. They called the series a “hit piece” and accused Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos of going after Combs out of spite. According to Combs’ team, he’s been gathering footage since he was nineteen to tell his own story—so they say Netflix basically stole his material.

Netflix shot back with a statement of their own, standing by the documentary. They insisted the footage was “legally obtained.” They also pointed out that Curtis Jackson (yes, 50 Cent) might be an executive producer, but he doesn’t actually have creative control over the film. Netflix made it clear: nobody got paid to participate, and they see this project as real journalism, not some kind of revenge flick.

So far, though, Netflix hasn’t addressed Janice’s statement from December 6. That part’s still hanging in the air.

A Son Behind Bars: The Backdrop to This Dispute

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You can’t really get the full picture of Janice’s defense without knowing what her son’s going through. Right now, Sean Combs sits behind bars at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, working through a 50-month sentence after a July 2024 conviction. The charges? Two counts tied to transporting people for prostitution. Police arrested him in September 2024, piling on even heavier accusations—sex trafficking and RICO violations. In the end, a jury cleared him of those, but the damage was done.

October 2024 marked a tough chapter for the Combs family. Janice never missed a step—she was there for the entire two-month trial, sitting beside her grandchildren, standing by her son even as the verdicts came down. She’s never wavered. No matter what anyone says, she insists Sean’s always been “a dutiful son, making sure I was cared for, handling my medical needs, and supporting me financially.”

The Fight Over Who Gets to Tell the Story

At the heart of this mess around “The Reckoning” is a bigger question: Who really gets to shape Sean Combs’ story? The documentary says it’s a journalistic dive into his rise and fall, but Janice sees it differently. In her eyes, the filmmakers ignored the family’s side, picked facts that fit their story, and left out everything that didn’t.

Janice wrapped up her statement with a clear demand: “I am requesting that these distortions, falsehoods, and misleading statements be publicly retracted.” She’s not just talking about artistic choices here. For her, this is about protecting her family’s reputation while they’re under a microscope like never before.

Netflix, for its part, hasn’t budged. No talk of retractions or edits. The standoff rolls on. “The Reckoning” keeps drawing viewers, and the arguments about what’s fair or true keep swirling. Whether Janice takes things further—maybe even to court—or finds another way to push back, that’s still up in the air.