Culture Shifters Oct. 22, 2024

When Sean Combs' Case Demanded A Nuanced Report, Cheyenne Roundtree Stepped Up

Written By Candice Frederick Photography by Rhiannon Adam

The Rolling Stone investigative journalist reflects on navigating trolls online, bringing truth to light and the unfortunate state of Black media.

This profile is part of our Culture Shifters series, which highlights people who are changing the way we think about the world around us. To read about our other Culture Shifters, return to the list here .

If youre Black and part of any group chat or text chain with a friend, you were likely sent a link to the Rolling Stone article Bad Boy for Life: Sean Combs History of Violence , as soon as it ran on May 24, along with a series of exclamation points or some version of holy shit, or finally.

Its not that reporting on Combs long, violent past is shocking. The Rolling Stone story was published days after CNN released a video from 2016 of Combs physically assaulting singer and then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, and months after his properties were raided in connection to a federal investigation into allegations that include sex trafficking and sexual assault. That investigation also contained Venturas own lawsuit, first reported in The New York Times , from November last year, in which she accused Combs, A.K.A. Diddy, of rape and abuse the first OMG moment in the Diddy/Black group chat journey.

Cheyenne Roundtree, who wrote the Rolling Stone piece with senior reporter Nancy Dillon, remembers the moment she heard about Venturas lawsuit all too well. It was right around her birthday and her impending nuptials, and she was in full festivities mode. But, as has often been the case when shes had to step out of a party or other personal event to whip out her laptop, take a phone call for 10 minutes or return a text to a source, the news had stolen her attention.

I think it was just like that breath I think everyone probably had it like, oh my God, Roundtree remembered on a video call from her home in Brooklyn in August.

Ventura has been a celebrity, but shes kind of been on the periphery, she said. We dont know so much about Cassie, but we knew that she was Diddys partner. She just kind of has always been that; almost like a wife, a partner that stays in her own lane.

Ventura and Combs broke up in 2018, and in 2019 she married personal trainer Alex Fine, with whom she now has two children.

So then when the truth came out this is what this woman says [she was] experiencing for, like, a decade, and she was 19 years old, Roundtree said of the lawsuit, which detailed Venturas relationship with Combs. She still couldnt get away from it. I was just like, theres so much material here.