No, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs wasn’t hospitalized after a prison attack

A recent Instagram post claims without evidence that hip-hop magnate Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is incarcerated on charges including sex trafficking, was hospitalized after an in-custody attack. 

“BREAKING,” the Oct. 18 Instagram post said. “Diddy HOSPITALIZED after being JUMPED in prison.” 

The post included a video that briefly showed an image of what looked like an injured Combs lying in bed and an image from a camera recording of two inmates in orange jumpsuits fighting.

“Exclusive,” read the text below the images. “Diddy got jumped!” 

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Combs’ lawyer didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post, and a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said that “for privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any individual in our custody.”

But we found no credible evidence, such as news stories or public statements, to corroborate the claim in the post. 

We also found no evidence that the image of Combs is authentic. Reverse-image searches turned up no matches, though other photos of Combs in the hospital — such as he when he underwent knee surgery in 2020 —  are widely available online.

Prison records show that as of Oct. 23, Combs was still at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a facility that an attorney who represented an inmate who died there following a brawl described as “hell on earth.”

But claims Combs was hospitalized after being attacked there are baseless. We rate that claim False.