A $100 million defamation lawsuit over Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy has now left Sean “Diddy” Combs facing a hefty legal bill of his own. Months after his case against NBCUniversal, Peacock, and production company Ample was dismissed, a New York judge has ordered him to pay $477,700.50 toward the defendants’ legal fees.
The amount is significant, though it falls well below what NBCUniversal originally requested. According to TMZ, the company sought $990,292 after successfully defending itself against Combs’ lawsuit. The judge ultimately reduced that figure by more than half.
Combs’ representative, Juda Engelmayer, highlighted that reduction in a response to the ruling. “Yes, Sean was ordered to pay approximately $478,000 in attorneys’ fees, but that is only half the story,” he said. Engelmayer pointed out that NBCUniversal initially requested nearly $1 million and noted that the court found “substantial portions of its billing excessive and unreasonable.”
Combs filed the lawsuit in February 2025, accusing NBCUniversal, Peacock, and Ample of defaming him through the Peacock documentary. Among his objections were claims made in the film surrounding Kim Porter’s death and allegations involving underage women, which Combs said were false. He sought at least $100 million in damages. TMZ reported at the time that his attorneys had warned the companies about what they described as “unverified conspiracy theories” ahead of the documentary’s release.
The case was dismissed in April under New York’s anti-SLAPP law, with Justice Phaedra F. Perry-Bond instructing the defendants to seek attorneys’ fees. Combs appealed the dismissal and later argued that the fee issue should be put on hold until the appeal was resolved. His attorneys also argued that, if fees were awarded, a reasonable amount would be no more than $166,769.25. NBCUniversal’s legal team sought considerably more, eventually requesting $990,292. Court records summarized by Diddy Docket show that the dispute over legal fees went through several rounds of filings before the court ultimately set the award at $477,700.50.
Engelmayer’s response also highlighted another detail. He noted that the attorneys challenging NBCUniversal’s legal bills were from Sher Tremonte, the same firm that recently sought to withdraw from another civil case involving Combs amid a separate dispute over unpaid legal fees. The firm claimed Combs owed a significant outstanding balance and had stopped cooperating, while Combs maintained that he switched attorneys because he believed he was being overcharged for expenses he had not authorized.
