She Nearly Paid the Blackmailer. Then the Tape Leaked Anyway.
Daphne Joy says she never consented to being filmed, was threatened with extortion, and still had the footage released. Now her young son is watching it all unfold publicly.

She said she almost gave in.
Model and actress Daphne Joy revealed this week that she was threatened with the release of a private video — and came close to paying the person who made the demand. She didn’t pay. The tape leaked anyway.
The footage, which began spreading on social media over the weekend of June 1, allegedly shows Joy in an intimate encounter involving Sean “Diddy” Combs and adult film performer Sly Diggler. Combs, the disgraced music mogul behind Bad Boy Records, is currently serving prison time. He has not publicly commented.
Diggler confirmed his presence in the video. Joy, 39, did something far more difficult — she addressed it publicly.

“I Have Been the Biggest Fool”
In a now-deleted Instagram statement shared across multiple entertainment outlets before its removal, Joy confirmed the video exists and said she was never aware she was being recorded.
“The recent leak was a tape I never consented to being filmed on,” she wrote, according to Complex and TheGrio. “I was blackmailed by the person in the video and was threatened that if I didn’t give him the lump sum of money that they would leak it on the web. I almost gave in to this demand.”
Joy said the footage was eventually obtained by a major media outlet, which reportedly chose not to publish it after determining it constituted revenge porn connected to an alleged extortion scheme, according to TheGrio. It eventually leaked through other channels.
What makes the statement remarkable is its emotional honesty. Joy didn’t just address the logistics — she confronted the relationship that led her there.
“Everybody plays the fool sometime, and I have been the biggest fool,” she wrote. “I just wanted my man at the time to be happy and satisfied. I wanted to fulfill all his desires — even if that meant breaking my own boundaries.”

Rewatching Abuse
Joy dated Combs intermittently between 2021 and his 2024 arrest, according to multiple outlets. In her statement, she described the relationship not as a romance she misread, but as something she now recognizes as abuse.
“It took me all day to find the courage to rewatch my abuse,” she wrote, according to TheGrio. “Having to watch this tape was triggering and painful because only I knew the inner turmoil and pressures I felt in those moments.”
She added: “I just want to hold that girl in that room and get her out of there. And tell her that wasn’t love and she didn’t need to do this for love.”
After posting the statement, Joy deactivated her Instagram account entirely.

A Father’s Response That Shocked Many
50 Cent, Joy’s ex-partner and the father of their son, was among the first public figures to react. His response drew immediate backlash.
“She’s not a victim, SIRE is,” he posted on Instagram, according to Complex. “Can you imagine going to eighth grade to find out this is your mom?”
He added: “The court system in LA thinks it’s fine” — a reference to Joy currently having custody of their son.
The posts struck many observers as a public humiliation of the mother of his child at one of the most vulnerable moments of her life. Others noted the cruelty of a father’s first public response being about shame rather than support for a teenager navigating the situation.
In 2024, 50 Cent had already cited the Rodney Jones lawsuit — in which Joy was named — as grounds to pursue full custody of Sire, according to People Magazine. His team stated at the time that the allegations in the lawsuit had “required me to take all necessary legal actions to protect my son.”

Years of Allegations, One Week of Headlines
Joy’s name has been tied to the Combs controversy since early 2024, when music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a $30 million civil lawsuit against Combs. Court documents, obtained by Fox News Digital and USA Today, listed Joy among several women allegedly paid monthly fees by Combs.
Joy fired back immediately: “I am deeply hurt by the lies in Rodney Jones’ lawsuit. The claim that I am a sex worker is 100% false and character assassination. I am retaining an attorney to explore all legal remedies against both Rodney and his attorney.”
She has not been charged with any crime. No charges related to the alleged extortion of Joy have been publicly reported.
What’s confirmed is simpler and harder: a woman says a camera recorded her without her knowledge, someone tried to profit from that recording, and when the money didn’t come, the video went online anyway.

Why This Matters Beyond the Headlines
Non-consensual intimate imagery — what the law increasingly recognizes as revenge porn — is now illegal in 48 U.S. states. But legal protections rarely stop the harm. Once footage is online, the damage is nearly impossible to undo.
Joy’s case puts a human face on something that happens to thousands of women every year, most of them without the platform to respond publicly. It also raises harder questions: Who failed to intervene? What happened to the alleged criminal extortion demand? And who ultimately distributed the footage after the media outlet declined?
For now, a 13-year-old boy is going to school while the internet debates his mother.
“I just want to hold that girl in that room and get her out of there,” Joy wrote.
That girl had a child. That child has to live with this.