What We Know About Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Relationship With Kim Porter Before Her Death

Kim Porter was a model and actress who died tragically in 2018 at the age of just 47, leaving behind four children. Born in Columbia, Georgia, on December 15, 1970, she moved to Atlanta shortly after graduating high school in 1988. Soon, she made her first steps into the entertainment industry. In 1994, while she was still working as a receptionist, her profile exploded when she began dating Sean "Diddy" Combs, then known as Puff Daddy.

Combs was then in the ascendancy, having set up his record label, Bad Boy, the previous year, and riding high on the success of the label's biggest star, Notorious B.I.G., and his debut album, "Ready to Die." Combs and Porter remained together throughout the years that followed, during which time his music career began to take off. However, he also faced multiple legal issues related to gun possession and violence, and he was hurt by the tragic murder of Notorious B.I.G. in 1997. A year later, Porter gave birth to the couple's first child, Christian. But secretly, the relationship was on the rocks.

Despite having welcomed a newborn baby into his relationship, Sean "Diddy" Combs' eye was elsewhere. As Kim Porter found out through friends, Combs had begun an affair with another rising music star: Jennifer Lopez, then just recently divorced. Soon, the affair was all over the news, and the love triangle was the subject of continued tabloid coverage for months afterward. 

Combs has become notorious for his forcefulness and aggression in both his business dealings and his private life. Yet Porter nevertheless stood up to him, forcing him to leave their shared home when the news broke, after which he lived for a short period in a hotel. However, he continued to insist it was his right to make frequent visits to Porter and Christian even as his relationship with Lopez continued. "It was like my life was not my own," Porter told Essence shortly after. "He was very, very intrusive."

As Combs continued to visit Porter despite her wishes, the tension led to several heated exchanges, which in one instance led to her throwing a television at Combs. Combs himself told the same publication that he had started to lose interest in Porter for being too "laid-back" and that he was looking for someone more aggressive. He also admitted that he began the affair to regain Porter's attention: "I thought, 'I'll test the waters and hopefully Kim will see I'm serious and come running after me.'" When Porter started a new relationship with music executive Shakir Stewart in 2000, Combs, who was used to making enemies, attacked him with a chair at a wedding in Italy, causing such injuries that Stewart needed stitches.

Against the odds, Kim Porter and Sean "Diddy" Combs got back together in 2003. In 2006, they welcomed twins, D'Lila and Jessie, and set about raising four children together (including Porter's son from a previous relationship). But the relationship shredded once again in 2007, after Porter learned that Combs had had a child with another woman, his friend Sarah Chapman. She later told the press that she had lost all respect for Combs after he failed to tell her of the transgression himself.

Nevertheless, the two were reportedly on good terms in the years that followed as they continued to raise their children. Then tragedy struck in November 2018 when Porter died suddenly from lobar pneumonia. Combs paid tribute to Porter after news of her death broke, posting on social media that they were "more than soulmates" (per the BBC).

Combs recalled later that in the days before her death, Porter had sent her children to stay with the mogul so she wouldn't get them sick and asked him to look after the children. "Before this, I was a part-time father, you know?" he said (per Billboard). "My family was always first, but there are countless times when I chose work over everything else. 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."