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Controversial music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs unexpectedly lost the mother of his children, Kim Porter, in 2018. During his grieving process, he did everything that he could to delay the news potentially reaching his kids.

Diddy didn’t want his kids to hear about Kim Porter’s death from outside sources

Diddy in a white suit posing next to Kim Porter at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
Kim Porter and Diddy | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

One of the first things Diddy did after his ex-girlfriend’s unexpected death was keep the news away from his kids. The couple had three children, Christian, D’Lila, and Jessie Combs, in the years of their tumultuous up-and-down relationship. Diddy also adopted Quincy Brown, who is Porter’s son from her relationship with Al B. Sure!.

Porter would die of a sudden case of lobar pneumonia. Before this, Porter experienced flu-like symptoms severe enough that she didn’t think she was capable of tending to her kids. So, she took her kids to Diddy to have the Bad Boys CEO watch over them. Diddy once broke down after remembering the last thing Porter said to him.

“Three days before she passed, she wasn’t feeling well,” Diddy told Essence not too long ago. “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.”

Although the two couldn’t make their relationship work, Diddy confided they always found common ground when it came to their family. He credited Porter for giving him the tools he needed to raise his kids as a single father.

“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,” Diddy said. “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 something like this ever happened.”

Immediately after Porter’s death, Diddy tried honoring his ex-wife’s last words by protecting his kids from the news.

“I jumped into mommy mode,” Diddy said. “I sent people in every direction to try to make sure the kids would not hear about it on social media or the news. … I had to get to the girls’ school and find Quincy, who was on set in Atlanta.”

Diddy also went to extreme lengths to keep his son Christian, who was traveling at the time, away from the news.

“Christian was on a plane, and I had his phone disconnected so he wouldn’t read it in the air,” he said.

Diddy allegedly saw his other partners as ‘playthings’ after Kim Porter’s death

Diddy confided that Porter’s death had a profound impact on his life. For one, it taught him to spend more time with his children.

“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,” he said. “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.”

But according to one anonymous source, Porter’s death might’ve had a negative influence on Diddy as well. Diddy would eventually reenter the dating scene after his wife’s death. He was linked to names like Cassie and Yung Miami after Porter’s passing. There were rumors he even dated Lori Harvey, although Diddy denied that was ever the case.

Diddy shared not too long ago that his goal was to find the same kind of love that Porter once provided for him. But he asserted it was a difficult process due to him still grieving over Porter.

However, an alleged insider once claimed to Us Weekly that Porter’s death resulted in a dark shift for the Bad Boys artist. If the source is to be believed, this change might’ve played a small part in Diddy’s current predicament.

“When Kim died, it rocked Diddy’s world,” the insider said. “It was a massive shock and a turning point. All the other women in his life were playthings. Kim was the real deal. It was all down from there.”