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  • ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ star talks sexual abuse

    ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ star talks sexual abuse

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    Mikayla Matthews never grew up talking about her trauma. But that’s all changing now.

    The 24-year-old, a star of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” discloses she was sexually abused as a child on Season 2 of the breakout reality series (streaming May 15 on Hulu). She peels back the layers of her abuse over the course of several devastating scenes in the season’s third episode: The abuse occurred over four or five years; she told her mother about the abuse in 2015 and wasn’t believed; this in turn caused her to be hesitant of telling anyone anything or expressing any emotion – a cycle she wants to stop.

    “I don’t want my kids to grow up with the same trauma that I was shown growing up,” she says over a recent phone call. “I want them to have the skills to express their emotions and to be emotionally mature.”

    In case you missed: ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ is scandalous. It’s not the whole story.

    ‘It’s been absolute hell’

    “Mormon Wives” features a group of Utah influencers known as “#MomTok,” whose friendship and relationship ups and downs made for binge-watching gold when it premiered in 2024. Part of what made it work? The jumps from light to heavy topics – something for everyone, and a reflection of reality.

    “We might be having a serious conversation, and we just can’t help but be silly, because it’s what helps us feel comfortable,” Matthews says. “We really trauma bond on the show.”

    This season, viewers watch Matthews open up about her trauma in a conversation with her sisters as well as a therapist. They’re powerful scenes that showcase just how vulnerable she’s willing to be. Her on-camera chat with her sisters was the first time they’d ever discussed the abuse.

    She’s publicly talked about her health before, but hasn’t connected the dots much until now. Matthews – a mother of three children, and expecting a fourth with husband Jace Terry – was a bit of a background player in Season 1 while dealing with a chronic, mysterious skin issues.

    “It’s been absolute hell,” she says. “It’s been like a roller coaster and a wild goose chase.” A litany of tests later – blood tests, stool tests, gut tests, you name it – failed to produce any answers to her illness.

    “I got to a point where I just wanted to give up, because I was going to so many dermatologists, she adds. “I was going to my dermatologist office just crying, just begging them to give me any answers to help me, and I wasn’t getting that. So it was really frustrating.”

    Once she started addressing her mental health and dealing with her past trauma, though, she’s experienced the most progress – “taking it into my own hands and trusting my own intuitions and in my body.” Research has shown a connection between stress and skin disease.

    She credits “Mormon Wives” with encouraging her to share her feelings. Doing so has both inflamed and quelled her skin problems.

    “When I am overly stressed, or when I go to therapy, and I’m talking about things that are really traumatic and hard, I will flare,” she says, noticing her “skin gets worse when I’m talking about these things, and then it’ll get better after, almost like a release.”

    Review: These modern day Mormons are getting real. But can they conquer reality TV?

    ‘I just think about my kids’

    Healing from her trauma has allowed her to process her emotions more effectively and not just shut down. While she can talk to her husband, siblings and the rest of #MomTok about it, “I think it’s OK for me to be that safe place for myself and feel comfortable just feeling those emotions.”

    The hardest part for her occurs during therapy, when she tries digging into her childhood self while she was being abused, now that she has children of her own. “I just think about my kids and what if it was happening to them,” she says.

    This has led to better communication with her husband, though. He steps in when she’s feeling overstimulated or she’s having trouble regulating her emotions in front of their kids.

    “Just having the conversations before and after and during, just while everything’s happening, has been the most helpful thing for us,” she says. “It’s hard. It’s hard to look at yourself and realize you’re doing things that are not great and things you don’t want to do, and it’s hard to take a look in the mirror and fix them. But I think just giving each other grace and having those conversations as it’s happening has been the most important, helpful thing.”

  • Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial begins: See photosCelebrities

    Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial begins: See photosCelebrities

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial begins: See photosCelebrities

  • Tina Fey shares story behind Alan Alda cameo

    Tina Fey shares story behind Alan Alda cameo

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    Spoiler alert! This story contains minor details about the plot of Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” (now streaming).

    Decades before it became a streaming series, “The Four Seasons” was a 1981 movie written, directed by and starring Alan Alda.

    Tina Fey, who adapted the film for Netflix with Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher, wanted to find a way to pay homage to Alda through the show. So she recruited the “M*A*S*H” veteran for a brief cameo in the second episode, playing the widowed father of Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who has planned a surprise vow-renewal party for her husband, Nick (Steve Carell).

    Alda’s beloved patriarch pops in to offer words of wisdom for Anne’s friends, Kate (Fey) and Danny (Colman Domingo), both of whom are facing marital obstacles.

    “Communication. Try not to fuss about the small stuff,” he says. “But my wife did have this one thing. … Every once in a while, we’d wake up and she’d say, ‘Congratulations. Take off your pants, it’s a sex day.’ You might try that with your spouse. They’d be so grateful and surprised.”

    ‘Four Seasons’: Who dies in Tina Fey’s Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?

    For a while, Fey grappled with whom exactly Alda should play. She briefly considered having him return as an older version of his film character, Jack, who is portrayed by Will Forte in the new Netflix series. She notes how she played math teacher Ms. Norbury in both the 2004 and 2024 movie versions of “Mean Girls.”

    “To me, that was like, ‘Teachers see it all over and over again,’ which was how I justified it to myself,” Fey jokes. “But he can’t be the same guy – that would break the brain. So we made him Anne’s dad, and it was a thrill to spend a day on set with him. I was lucky enough years ago to work with him a little bit on ’30 Rock.’ He’s really gifted, has great timing and just came in ready to go.”

    Alda, 89, is an Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee, with notable film roles including “The Aviator,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and the apropos “Marriage Story.”

    “He’s just such a lovely person,” Fisher says. “We liked the idea of him, at some point, shedding some real wisdom onto our characters and talking about marriage, even a few decades ahead of where they are. It felt very fitting to see him early on, so you could take those pearls with you through the rest of the season.”

    Ahead of the series’ debut on Netflix, Alda reunited with Fey at New York’s Paris Theater for a screening of the “Four Seasons” movie. The actor, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, initially had no plans to speak before or after the film.

    “He loves you,” says actress Erika Henningsen, in a recent joint interview with Fey. “He got up, came down, and bestowed love and joy and gratitude on Tina, Tracey and Lang. He’s just an aspirational human being in every way.”

    Alda is one of a handful of “30 Rock” alums to work on “The Four Seasons,” including writers Fisher and Wigfield and actor Forte. The Emmy-winning NBC comedy, which signed off in 2013, was known for its biting satire and pop-culture commentary, with outrageous scenarios that feel somehow tame compared to what’s happening now in real life.

    “The world is now 40% ’30 Rock’ and 60% Mike Judge’s ‘Idiocracy,’” Fey says with a shrug, pointing to rowdy “Minecraft” audiences and Blue Origin’s all-women space flight. Although her latest project is a dramatic relationship comedy, she still gets the occasional itch to write for her “30 Rock” characters, particularly the dementedly self-absorbed actress Jenna (Jane Krakowski).

    “There are definitely times when I’m like, ‘Wow, that would’ve been a great Jenna storyline,” Fey says, smiling. “It’s almost always Jenna.”

  • Connie Britton’s ‘The Motherhood’ created for her fellow single moms

    Connie Britton’s ‘The Motherhood’ created for her fellow single moms

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    For Connie Britton, mum’s frequently not the word; it’s the role.

    Supportive Tami Taylor on NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” singing Rayna Jaymes on ABC’s “Nashville,” tech CFO Nicole Mossbacher on HBO’s “The White Lotus,” and more recently, mom from beyond Elizabeth in Netflix film “The Life List.” Up next, she’ll appear in the Amazon Prime comedy “Overcompensating,” debuting May 15, as the mom of a closeted college student (Benito Skinner).

    “I just kind of realized recently, I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, I’ve played a lot of moms. What’s that about?” Britton says with a laugh. The Emmy-nominated actress, 58, says she received an offer for her first mom role in her early 30s. She remembers being “so horrified at the idea, like, ‘How could I possibly be old enough to be playing a mom?’ Now, I love playing moms because every single mom I play, I try to understand each one as the unique human being that they are.”

    In real life, Britton is a mother to her teenage son Yoby, whom she adopted from Ethiopia in 2011. The following year, she moved to Nashville (where she didn’t know anyone) for the ABC drama and worked 16- to 18-hour days. Her experience as a single parent inspired Britton to create “The Motherhood,” a Hallmark Channel reality series enlisting the help of experts to make life easier for single moms, debuting May 5 (Mondays, 8 ET/PT).

    Britton describes “The Motherhood” in the show’s premiere as “a community of single moms created to provide support to one another when you need it the most.” Britton helped when a friend who worked in costumes on “Nashville,” a single mom to four kids, forgot to give her son lunch money. The actress dropped off money at his school.

    “And it was in that moment that I thought, ‘Gosh, it would be so great to create some kind of resource and community for single moms, where people could volunteer and just one day a week go grocery shopping for them or take care of the kids, or just do something that would give that mom a little bit of support and a little bit of help,’” she says.

    Over six hourlong episodes, Destini Ann Davis offers women parenting advice, Taryn Hicks elevates their style and Angela Rose makes their homes more beautiful and functional. (If the premise seems a little familiar, the show is produced by Scout Productions, also behind Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”)

    “The thing is – and this is the point of my show – you can’t just do it on your own,” Britton says. Single moms need community, she says, a support system. “I adopted my son and I’ve always been kind of an independent gal. So I sort of thought, ‘I got this,’ and I feel like I have a lot of maternal instincts, all the things. But when I suddenly was really the mother of an infant child and I was all by myself, it was quite an eye-opening experience.

    “The feeling of being alone in it was really profound,” she says. “And let me be clear, this is with me having the resources to be able to afford help. That, to me, is just an enormous privilege and blessing, and also, it doesn’t necessarily fill all the void. There’s still a lot of feeling of, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ and ‘I don’t know how to do this,’ which I think, by the way, that resonates for all parents.”

    The series premiere introduces viewers to Tasha, a professor with a 5-year-old daughter, Busy. Tasha’s living room is overrun with her daughter’s toys, and Tasha admits she “realized I don’t see myself in this house anymore.” She needs to create a space for herself in her home and reconnect to her identity outside of being a mom.

    An “overwhelmed and overextended” Rochelle is the focus of Episode 2. She has two young sons, Jacob and Owen, and works several jobs to support her family. Rochelle manages a foundation and is a parent aide for foster care. She has also started a T-shirt design company and balloon decorating business to save money for her sons’ college. Rochelle tells Connie, “I want my boys to see how resilient mommies can be.”

    Britton says she observed that each of the single moms featured “had real tangible change in their lives, from the things that they learned about themselves and the support that they were able to put in and the idea that they could actually ask for help.”

    One participant got a job after her episode, Britton says, and another went on a date.

    “All of these things where it’s like, they allowed themselves to be courageous enough to open up to the community that we were trying to provide and create,” she says. “And they have now run with that.”

  • Beyoncé changes tour visuals after cease-and-desist from Sphere owner

    Beyoncé changes tour visuals after cease-and-desist from Sphere owner

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    • Beyoncé altered visuals in her “Cowboy Carter” tour after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Sphere Entertainment Group.
    • The original visuals depicted Beyoncé interacting with the Las Vegas Sphere, which the Sphere claimed was unauthorized use of their intellectual property.
    • The cease-and-desist letter fueled speculation about a potential Beyoncé residency at the Sphere.

    Beyoncé-Knowles-Carter made a change to the visuals used on her “Cowboy Carter” tour after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Las Vegas Sphere owner James Dolan.

    The Grammy-winning singer took hold of the stage at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for the third night of her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit Tour on May 4. The groundbreaking concert seemingly went on without a hitch. However, there was a minor, yet significant, change in a visual involving the Sphere.

    In the original interlude, Beyoncé was seen towering hundreds of feet tall while striding through the Las Vegas skyline before she picks up and toys with the the Sphere. During Sunday night’s show, she replaced the Sphere visual with Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium — where she’ll close out her tour in July. And her Parkwood Entertainment company made sure to reiterate this by posting the new visual on Instagram during the show.

    Prior to the change, Sphere Entertainment Group Co. reportedly demanded the singer remove the visual by May 5, claiming she used Sphere’s imagery “without permission.” According to the letter, it amounted to “unauthorized use of the company’s intellectual property.”

    The entertainment group accused Beyoncé of “impermissible use and violation” of the company’s intellectual property rights, which “has resulted in significant speculation that Beyoncé will end her tour with a Sphere residency.”

    As fans know, Beyoncé first debuted her tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angles on April 28 with 39 songs on the set list. Her second show took place May 1 on the same stage. The groundbreaking concert proved to be spectacle of many things including fashion, different music genres and most notably country music and political commentary.

    As fans know, Beyoncé first released the 27-track project in March 2024. It has since made history and broken multiple records. As Beyoncé’s first country album, she deliberately featured country legends and emerging Black country artists alike. She became the first Black woman to win best country album at the 2025 Grammys and also took home album of the year.

    The nine-city tour will span the U.S. and Europe with the grand finale taking place in Las Vegas on July 26. She’s set to make history again with her scheduled tour dates, including by playing the most dates at SoFi Stadium of any artist.

    Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network’s Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.

  • Beyoncé dancer misses third show while recovering from onstage injury

    Beyoncé dancer misses third show while recovering from onstage injury

    Beyoncé Knowles-Carter performed in Los Angeles for the third night of her “Cowboy Carter” tour, and one of her dancers was missing from the show due to an injury.

    Beyoncé hit the stage at SoFi Stadium for her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit Tour on May 4. Leading up to the show, one of her Irish step dancers, Morgan Bullock, posted on social media to update fans on a recent injury she sustained during the second night of the megastar’s tour.

    In an Instagram story later reshared on social media, Bullock wrote: “Ya’ll to say I am devastated to have injured myself at show two would be the understatement of the century. Like I said, God always has a plan but this hurts like nothing else, and I’m not talking about the Achilles.” She shared a similar message on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    Details surrounding the specific injury are not clear. However, many fans made sure to share good wishes online. One wrote on X, “We wish her a speedy recovery and hope she returns as soon as possible.”

    Beyoncé’s second show took place on May 1. During the show, she moved some songs around and added more throwback tunes to her massive set list. Fans watching online and from the stadium seemed pleasantly surprised with the changes.

    As fans know, the Grammy-winning singer debuted her show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angles on April 28 with 39 songs on the set list. The groundbreaking concert has proved to be spectacle of many things including fashion, different music genres and most notably country music and political commentary.

    Beyoncé first released the 27-track project in March 2024. It has since made history and broken multiple records. As Beyoncé’s first country album, she deliberately featured country legends and emerging Black country artists alike. She became the first Black woman to win best country album at the 2025 Grammys and also took home album of the year.The nine-city tour will span the U.S. and Europe with the grand finale taking place in Las Vegas on July 26. She’s set to make history again with her scheduled tour dates, including by playing the most dates at SoFi Stadium of any artist.

    Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network’s Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.

  • What time is the 2025 Met Gala? Where to watch the red carpet live

    What time is the 2025 Met Gala? Where to watch the red carpet live

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    The first Monday of May only means one thing: fashion’s biggest night, a.k.a. the Met Gala.

    The annual fashion extravaganza, one of the most coveted events of the year, returns to New York City on May 5 with the dress code “Tailored for You,” in conjunction with the Costume Institute’s “Superfine” exhibit, challenging attendees to put their bespoke spin on the spiffiness of dandyism.

    The dress code, according to Vogue, pays tribute to the exhibit’s menswear focus and is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”

    About 450 guests compromising of “rising stars, young creatives and paragons from the worlds of fashion, the arts, sports, and politics” are expected to walk up the famed steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Vogue says.

    In anticipation for the big night, here’s what to know about the event, including who is attending, and how to watch it live.

    Met Gala 2025: Everything to know about the star-studded fashion extravaganza

    When is the Met Gala 2025? Date, time

    The Met Gala is held annually at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on the first Monday of May. This year the event will take place May 5.

    The event, which has been chaired by Vogue editor Anna Wintour since 1995, is scheduled to kick off around 4:30 p.m. ET with the red carpet, as per Vogue.

    Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

    How to watch Met Gala 2025 red carpet

    For those wanting to catch the fierce fashion in real time, the official Met Gala livestream will be broadcast across Vogue’s digital platforms, including the magazine’s official YouTube channel starting at 6 p.m. EST. The livestream will be hosted by singer and actor Teyana Taylor, actor La La Anthony, and comedian Ego Nwodim, Vogue says.

    TV network and pop culture hub E! will also be airing a three-and-a-half hour red-carpet special, kicking off at 6 p.m. ET/PT, which will be co-hosted by Zanna Roberts Rassi, Maria Taylor, Elaine Welteroth, Yvonne Orji and fashion designer Christian Siriano.

    A separate livestream special, airing from 6:30-8 p.m. ET, will be available across E!’s social media platforms, E! Online and streaming service Peacock.

    What is the Met Gala?

    The Costume Institute Benefit, commonly known as Met Gala, is a fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute, which hosts a collection of over 33,000 fashion artifacts. The 2024 Met Gala raised approximately $26 million, according to The New York Times and The Associated Press.

    Met Gala 2024 recap: Demi Moore, Sydney Sweeney and more prove ‘timeless’ in floral theme

    Who will be at the 2025 Met Gala?

    The Met Gala guest list, carefully curated by Wintour, is always kept tightly under wraps and is not known which celebrities will be in attendance at the event until the day of.

    However, confirmed attendees include the co-chairs of the 2025 Met Gala, who are:

    NBA superstar LeBron James, meanwhile, serves as an honorary co-chair, and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour will reprise her presiding co-chair role.

    In addition to the co-chairs, a host committee consisting of Usher, Regina King, Spike Lee, Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens, Janelle Monáe, Doechii and Ayo Edebiri among others will also be present at the event.

    Contributing: Edward Segarra, USA TODAY

    We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

    Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

  • Lewis Pullman on ‘messy’ Marvel role in ‘Thunderbolts,’ ‘Avengers’

    Lewis Pullman on ‘messy’ Marvel role in ‘Thunderbolts,’ ‘Avengers’

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    Lewis Pullman needs to pay more attention to his emails.

    The star of Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” admits it was his fault he missed the big livestream reveal of the “Avengers: Doomsday” cast in March that found him joining Anthony Mackie and Chris Hemsworth in the A-list squad. “The signs were there,” he says: Pullman remembered filming a short cameo for the “Thunderbolts*” post-credits scene that sets up “Doomsday,” but wasn’t totally clear about the whole thing.

    After a day of shooting in Vancouver, “I got back to my phone and I had all these texts. It was such a massive amount of possibilities that lie within that piece of information,” Pullman, 32, says. Then again, he had a hard time believing he was joining the MCU in the first place. “It does feel like a little bit of this untouchable world. I just kept waiting for somebody to announce that they had made some grand error. But I made it this far.”

    Join our Watch Party!  Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox

    Pullman’s superhero, the Sentry (aka Robert Reynolds), is arguably the most powerful Avenger now. He does have a dark side to those abilities, though, which is explored alongside his character’s new teammates Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). 

    The son of longtime Hollywood star Bill Pullman is no stranger to big-time franchises: He played Bob – the same name as his Marvel dude – opposite Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick,” part of a growing filmography that also includes “Salem’s Lot” and the drama series “Lessons in Chemistry” (which garnered Pullman an Emmy nomination).

    Here’s what fans need to know about Marvel’s newest rookie:

    Lewis Pullman’s Sentry proved to be a challenging hat trick for ‘Thunderbolts*’

    The movie reveals that Bob is a troubled meth addict who signed up to be experimented on by CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and become a super soldier. Thought to be dead, he winds up teaming with the Thunderbolts but is later turned into the Sentry, with a cape and supersuit to match his Superman-like powers. Another aspect of Bob is revealed as The Void, a dark and colorless figure that’s a manifestation of his inner trauma.

    “Everyone has these sort of shadow selves that sometimes, if you don’t have the language to harness or control or know when it’s OK to exist with them, can bleed out in dangerous ways,” Pullman says. “So it’s obviously quite messy.

    “The Void is in many ways a mirror that we often hide from. And then to be forced to look at it is really informative if you can sit through it.”

    Playing the character meant having “sort of like three jobs,” he adds, and Pullman felt self-doubt going into “Thunderbolts.” Thankfully, he had Pugh around as a Marvel mentor. “She saw in me, maybe a little bit of fear, probably. She didn’t make a big deal out of it, and she just really subtly would give me a little piece of advice that was actually massive for me.”

    Acting was one of many ‘creative avenues’ for young Lewis Pullman

    Pullman was raised in a “very creative” family – in addition to his “Independence Day” dad, mom Tamara Hurwitz is a modern dancer and choreographer, sister Maesa is a singer and songwriter, and brother Jack designs masks and puppets – and his parents instilled in him “the idea that you don’t have to choose one thing,” he says. At different times in his life, Pullman wanted to be a drummer, an artist, a social worker and a rancher.

    Acting “allows you to continue learning things that you would never really choose to do,” Pullman says. “I’ve become incredibly mediocre at so many different things from having a month or two of training, whether it be roping or rowing or paddle boarding, or surfing. It pushes you to explore certain cavernous areas of yourself that normally you would neglect.”

    Pullman does return to his other loves, too: After recently wrapping a movie, he came home for the first time in two months and immediately sat at his drum set for three hours. “It’s an amazing way to keep an even air flow throughout your creative avenues, by continually shaking up the Etch A Sketch,” he says.

    Lewis Pullman vs. Robert Downey Jr.? It might happen in new ‘Avengers’

    Next up for Pullman is the historical drama musical “Ann Lee,” starring Amanda Seyfried, and he just finished production on Netflix’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” an adaptation of the Shelby Van Pelt novel featuring Sally Field and a giant octopus. Pullman doesn’t have a start date yet for “Doomsday,” which is filming in London, “but any minute now,” he says. 

    The night he was announced for the new “Avengers,” “I couldn’t fall asleep just imagining all the different avenues and possibilities that Bob could kind of go down,” Pullman says. The cast is “an embarrassment of riches,” and he’s hoping to at least do one scene with Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom: “Iron Man” is “really how I fell in love with Marvel, so that would be a wild full circle moment for me.”

  • Is the Diddy trial going to be televised? Jury selection live updates

    Is the Diddy trial going to be televised? Jury selection live updates

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    The criminal trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs is kicking off with day one of jury selection.

    As many as 150 potential jurors will be brought into a Manhattan courtroom one by one and questioned by Judge Arun Subramanian, the prosecution and defense to determine whether they are qualified to serve on Combs’ jury. The goal is to get through all potential jurors in three days.

    The embattled hip-hop mogul, 55, who at one time was among the most powerful figures in the music industry, has experienced a sharp fall from grace after facing a bevy of lawsuits and criminal charges accusing him of rape and sexual assault. He is headed to court to battle federal sex crimes charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

    During his final court hearing on May 2, Combs confirmed he turned down a potential plea deal. Subramanian previously rejected a request from the rapper’s legal team to delay the start of the trial.

    Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

    Diddy on Trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom with USA TODAY as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sex crimes and trafficking charges. Subscribe to the newsletter.

    Favorite music? Your friends’ sex lives? Diddy jury selection may surprise you

    If your significant other cheated on you, could you get past it?

    At first blush, the answer might not seem relevant to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ upcoming sex-trafficking trial. But it’s the surprising type of clue lawyers may look for in picking jurors starting Monday.

    Robert Hirschhorn, a lawyer and jury consultant, told USA TODAY a potential juror who could compartmentalize cheating in a relationship might also be the type of person who could compartmentalize disturbing evidence at trial. Prosecutors are poised to show, for example, a video of Combs dragging and kicking his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in a hotel hallway.

    “Everybody that says, ‘compartmentalize,’ I don’t care what else they say – Unless they say, ‘I already think Diddy’s guilty,’ I’m putting them on the jury every day,” Hirschhorn said.

    Jury consultants and trial experts told USA TODAY the legal teams may also look for clues to how potential jurors would approach the trial in their musical preferences, their openness to alternative sexual lifestyles, and their history with sexual violence.

    Favorite music? Your friends’ sex lives? Diddy jury selection may surprise you

    – Aysha Bagchi

    Combs has arrived at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, where he faces sweeping sex crime charges.

    U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian was expected to begin questioning prospective jurors one-by-one in a bid to seat a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates who can be fair and impartial despite heavy media coverage of the case so far.

    Combs’ six-person defense team, led by attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, added one more member on May 2, the last business day before jury selection.

    Xavier R. Donaldson, a New York-based criminal defense lawyer, filed a notice of appearance as a retained attorney for Combs in a document reviewed by USA TODAY May 2.

    According to his LinkedIn, the Howard University School of Law alumnus was once an assistant district attorney for the Bronx County DA’s office in the ’90s before moving into private practice. Notably, Combs also attended Howard University as a business student but dropped out before earning his Bachelor’s degree.

    The last attorney who joined Combs’ team was Brian Steel, the lawyer representing rapper Young Thug in his own long-running RICO trial.

    The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings. USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom.

    Combs is facing federal sex crimes and trafficking charges in a sprawling suit that has eroded his status as a power player and king-maker in the entertainment industry.

    The embattled music mogul was arrested in September and has been charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.

    His indictment emerged alongside dozens of separate civil suits suggesting a pattern of abusive behavior and exploitation spanning decades, including accusations of rape, sexual assault and physical violence.

    Despite repeated attempts at bail, Combs was ordered to remain in custody at the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of trial — a ruling his legal team has challenged in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He’s been jailed since his arrest on Sept. 16. 

    Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Anika Reed, Aysha Bagchi and Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY; Reuters

  • What does he face at trial – and could he go to jail?

    What does he face at trial – and could he go to jail?

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    The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is beginning, and with it comes the potential legal undoing of a one-time media and music titan.

    Combs, whose label Bad Boy Records helped make him a king-maker in the world of hip-hop, was toppled from on high in September, when authorities arrested him on federal charges, alleging he was helping run a criminal sex trafficking operation.

    Now behind bars as he awaits the court proceedings, Combs has simultaneously faced a torrent of civil suits painting the music mogul as a longtime abuser, following a quickly-settled lawsuit from ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura − who alleged Combs raped and assaulted her.

    As Combs arrives for his day in court May 5, here’s a look at the charges he faces.

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    What federal charges does Diddy face?

    Combs is charged with two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering.

    Federal authorities claim Combs turned his “multi-faceted business empire” into a “criminal enterprise” in which he and his associates engaged in kidnapping, arson and physical violence, sex trafficking and forced labor, among other alleged crimes.

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    A superseding indictment filed April 3 — the third revised indictment following an amended indictment in January and a superseding indictment in March — added two additional counts to the three from his original charging: one of sex trafficking and one of transportation to engage in prostitution.

    What is racketeering?

    Racketeering is the participation in an illegal scheme under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, as a way for the U.S. government to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity.

    Using RICO law, which is typically aimed at targeting multi-person criminal organizations, prosecutors allege that Combs coerced victims, some of whom they say were sex workers, through intimidation and narcotics to participate in “freak offs” — sometimes dayslong sex performances that federal prosecutors claim they have video of.

    Diddy on Trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom with USA TODAY as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sex crimes and trafficking charges. Subscribe to the newsletter.

    What civil cases does Diddy face?

    The federal charges against Combs echo some of the allegations in the more than 70 civil lawsuits filed against him.

    The claims of sexual abuse, drugging and physical assault span three decades, and include the lawsuit filed by Cassie in November 2023 through to the most recent suit in April 2025.

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    Could Diddy go to jail?

    Yes.

    If convicted on the racketeering charge, Combs could face life in prison, while the statutory minimum sentence for sex trafficking is 15 years and for transportation to engage in prostitution is a maximum of 10 years.

    The disgraced music mogul is already in custody, and, despite repeated attempts at bail, has remained confined to the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. He has been in jail since his arrest on Sept. 16, 2024.

    Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, KiMi Robinson, Edward Segarra,  Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY