Piers Morgan’s wife Celia Warden interviewed rap superstar Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs 16 years ago and says she now ‘squirms’ at certain things that happened on that day

Piers Morgan’s journalist wife says she now sees a 2008 encounter she had with hip hop mogul Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs in an entirely new light following allegations over his behaviour.Celia Walden says that her assessment that Combs was “just plain shy” makes her want to actively “squirm.” Combs was arrested last month in New York and later charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transportation and engaging in prostitution. Combs has pled not guilty to all charges against him.

But 16 years after meeting the man she describes as “a philanderer, a narcissist and a control freak,” Celia writes in the British Daily Telegraph that some of P Diddy’s actions on that day “have taken on sinister new meanings”.

She writes, recalling an interview she had on his superyacht: “‘It comes as a surprise to realise that P Diddy is just plain shy”. Reading back over a 2008 interview I did with disgraced music mogul Sean “P Diddy” Combs wasn’t a comfortable experience, but this reflection actively made me squirm.”

Celia Walden – seen here with husband Piers Morgan – describes the music mogul as a ‘narcissist and a control freak’ ( Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Spe)
Celia also claims that “other details from that afternoon have taken on sinister new meanings”. She added: “I think about how my interviewee snickered when I choked on the industrial-strength cocktail set down before me; about how he clearly wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath his white trousers, and about the prone, oil-slicked bodies lying around the deck of that 180ft yacht, chartered for the duration of the Cannes Film Festival.”

But she also explains how she sensed the profound trauma that came from his upbringing in Harlem. Combs lost his father when he was just three years old, as a result of a drug-related shooting.

In the 2008 interview, he said that he could understand why some would – as his father did – get involved in the criminal underworld: “I don’t know why anyone would do something where they know that the outcome is going to be death or jail. If you don’t care about yourself then at least do it for your mother, and try to imagine how she will feel.”

Combs has consistently protested his innocence of all charges ( Image: zz/Raoul Gatchalian/STAR MAX/IPx)
Combs, who was 38 at the time of the interview with Celia, was riding high on the success of multiple film and TV appearances, alongside his catalogue of big-selling records. He told Walden that he felt “totally jaded” and had few ambitions left to fulfil.

There was only one person he still wanted to meet. He said: “The Queen of England. I don’t know why I’ve never met her.She’s never invited me to the palace – not yet, anyway.”

Combs was arrested in September and is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York. His lawyer, Erica Wolff, has said that her client is looking forward to “proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court.”