Sean "Diddy" Combs has been ordered to pay $477,700.50 in attorneys' fees to NBCUniversal, Peacock TV, and production company Ample Entertainment, adding a financial sting to the music mogul's failed legal campaign against the companies. New York Supreme Court Justice Phaedra F. Perry-Bond issued the decision on October 6, following the dismissal of Combs' $100 million defamation lawsuit over the documentary "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy."
The fee award was significantly less than what the defendants had sought. NBCUniversal and its co-defendants requested $990,292 in legal fees, but the court cut that amount by more than $512,000, deeming portions of the billing excessive and unreasonable. The judge specifically flagged time spent on internal meetings, preparation for oral arguments, and work related to the fee dispute itself as areas where the requested costs were inflated.
Combs filed the $100 million lawsuit claiming the documentary defamed him. Its dismissal earlier this year was already a major setback, and the fee-shifting order underscores how costly the failed gambit has become. Under fee-shifting provisions, the losing party in certain defamation defenses can be made to cover the other side's reasonable legal costs - a mechanism designed to deter meritless suits that burden media defendants.
The ruling lands as Combs faces mounting legal pressure on multiple fronts. His broader legal troubles have included criminal proceedings and a wave of civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault, which he has denied. Separately, this week brought a ruling in a related entertainment-law skirmish: on October 1, 2026, a federal judge denied producer Jonathan Hay's request to pause a defamation case brought by C.J. Wallace - the son of the Notorious B.I.G. - stemming from Hay's allegations against Combs, allowing Wallace's damages case to move forward.
For NBCUniversal, the decision validates the defense strategy behind its documentary programming and recoups a substantial share of its legal spending. For Combs, it adds nearly half a million dollars in court-ordered payments to a legal tab that continues to grow. Neither side has publicly commented in detail on the fee order, but the numbers speak for themselves: the defamation suit that was meant to extract $100 million has instead cost him close to half a million dollars in the other side's legal bills - and the judge's trimming of the request suggests even the defendants' lawyers were billing more aggressively than the court would tolerate.
The fee order is a reminder of how high the stakes are when public figures sue media companies and lose. Fee-shifting provisions in defamation law exist precisely to discourage lawsuits that burden news organizations with the cost of defending reporting. Combs' case - a $100 million claim that ended not only in dismissal but in a court order to pay the other side's lawyers - is now likely to be cited as a cautionary example. The documentary at the center of the dispute, "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy," aired on Peacock and examined the allegations and controversies surrounding the mogul's career. Its producers, Ample Entertainment, defended the program as protected expression, and the court's dismissal of Combs' claims effectively vindicated that position.