P Diddy’s Private Videos in Netflix’s New Documentary: The Viral Theory Everyone’s Debating

Netflix just dropped 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning,' and the most talked-about thing in it is not some big reveal — it is the raw, hotel-room footage of Diddy spiraling through lawsuits, raids, and nonstop headlines. It is messy, uncomfortable, and clearly filmed with him knowing cameras were rolling. And now, a whole separate fight is breaking out over who owns those tapes and how they ended up on Netflix in the first place.

Inside the hotel-room footage

The doc leans hard on material shot during one of the most chaotic stretches of Combs's life. In one scene, he lays out how cornered he feels. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, tries to steady him, but Diddy sounds convinced the walls are closing in.

Things are happening, and it is like — I want to fight for my life. I want to fight for justice, [for] not guilty. I want to have a life to be able to live. It is really going to be hard for me to take more hits than I have taken, and — god forbid — get in front of a jury and have a chance.

You did not do anything wrong. You have handled this with complete honor.

I do not think it is working. We are losing.

Director Alexandria Stapleton and executive producer 50 Cent say the footage was obtained legally, and that Combs had a long-running habit of filming himself — including in the tense run-up to his arrest.

The rumor mill: who shot it, who paid, who sold it

There is a circulating fan theory about how some of this wound up in the series: Combs supposedly brought in a videographer to document him for weeks early in his legal battles. After the case ended, the story goes, Diddy did not pay, the videographer sold the footage to 50 Cent, and that material eventually landed in the Netflix doc. That chain has not been confirmed by Netflix, but it is the theory bouncing around.

Rob Shuter, writing on his Substack, paints a similar picture of a loose, loyalty-first operation. He says Combs often skipped contracts with photographers and video crews, prioritized silence over paperwork, and liked to keep everything under his personal control. Once Combs was behind bars, Shuter claims, someone waved money at a cameraman and the recordings moved — legally, according to Netflix; stolen, according to Combs's team. Shuter's bottom line is blunt: run a giant operation without contracts, and things can get away from you fast.

Everyone positions for the last word

• Diddy: He is calling the series a shameful hit job built on stolen footage. In a legal statement, he points to a Good Morning America teaser as proof the platform used material he never authorized. He also stresses he has been stockpiling his own footage since he was 19 to tell his story his way.
• Netflix and the filmmakers: They say they acquired everything properly and reject the idea that the show is a hit piece. Stapleton and 50 Cent both argue Combs constantly documented himself, including during the lead-up to his arrest.
• 50 Cent: He is not exactly neutral. He and Combs have history, and he is leaning into it, arguing that if he stayed quiet, people might think the hip-hop world was fine with Combs's behavior. In his view, nobody else was willing to be that loud.
• Rob Shuter and other insiders: They say Diddy's informal system made this inevitable. Combs's camp counters that none of that excuses using material he did not clear.

Diddy vs. 50 Cent goes public (again)

Combs is blasting Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson as a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering him. And he is going after Netflix too, insisting the streamer leaned on unauthorized footage.

Today’s GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release. As Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos know, Mr Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work.

Netflix stands by its process. 50 Cent, via The Guardian, defends being involved: if he said nothing, people might assume the culture was fine with what Combs is accused of — and he was not willing to let that be the takeaway.

Where things stand

Combs is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence, with a projected release in May 2028. Legal problems are still stacking up. Meanwhile, 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' is live on Netflix as of December 2, 2025. The footage fight is not cooling down anytime soon — and given how much of Diddy’s life has been filmed, the argument over who gets to show it might just be getting started.