Ty Stiklorius, manager of singer John Legend, spoke about a time 27 years ago when she had a ‘terrifying’ experience at a Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ yacht party

John‘s longtime manager, Ty Stiklorius recently shared about a “terrifying” experience she had at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ yacht party.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, published on October 31, Ty detailed the time she went on a family vacation to the Caribbean 27 years ago. She and her brother managed to get into a New York Eve’s yacht party docked at St. Barts. The party was hosted by Diddy. She claimed a man, who appeared to be an associate of Diddy’s, took her to a bedroom instead of the disco room Ty thought she was going to see.

“To this day, I can’t remember how I managed to talk my way out of that terrifying situation. Perhaps my nervous babbling — ‘My brother’s on this boat, and he’s probably looking for me!’ — convinced him to unlock the bedroom door and let me go,” the 49-year-old recalled.

The news about the disgraced music mogul’s indictment and arrest on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, to which he has pled not guilty – has brought her back to that memory of the yacht called the Dreamseeker.

Ty is John’s longtime manager

Ty shared about being at a Diddy yacht party ( Image: FilmMagic)
Diddy is currently detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits his May 2025 trial. He has denied all the charges and the allegations against him.

The Friends at Work CEO and founder went on to talk about how at one time, she thought what happened to her with the guy (who she acknowledged that didn’t know who the man was or “if he had any connection to Mr. Combs.”) was an “anomaly.” But being a music industry executive for 20 years has taught her that it was “aberration.”

“It was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry that actively fostered sexual misconduct and exploited the lives and bodies of those hoping to make it in the business,” Ty elaborated.

She explained how this culture has been permitted because the power has been given to “kingmakers: wealthy, entitled, nearly always male gatekeepers who control nearly every door that leads to success and who can, without consequence, use their power to abuse young women and young men.”

Ty addressed the idea of people wondering if Diddy’s arrest will finally lead to a ‘#MeToo’ reckoning. The music executive said that it was reductive to place sexual coercion, harassment and violence to a “few notorious individuals” like Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly which “suggests they’re outliers and obscures the more damning, stubborn, systemic rot that had infected the music business.”

Ty wrote an op-ed to the New York Times about the music industry needing to change
She shared how she has had “experiences with predators” and their enablers which almost had her leaving the music business. She named a specific incident where she was dining with a senior music executive when she was a business graduate student. He had invited her up to his hotel room by sliding his key card to her under the table to which she declined.

Ty continued: “I only persisted in the industry because, in 2005, an old college friend who was starting to find success as an artist reached out to me. That artist was John Legend and, 20 years later, I am still his manager and partner in multiple business ventures. It turns out that many artists, including John, want to be a part of a different model of business and culture.

She concluded in her op-ed, reiterating her sentiment of there being hope by stating “we can turn the page on a culture of exploitation and abuse.”

She added that the industry owes it “to the countless survivors of sexual assault and misconduct who suffered silently to unearth the truth, encourage people to share their stories and hold perpetrators accountable. We owe it to the next generation of creators to remake the business into something worthy of the art they create.”