Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jonathan Majors BOTH appear on ballot to pick BET Award nominees - amid rapper's multiple mounting lawsuits and actor's domestic violence conviction

By EVE BUCKLAND, US SHOWBUSINESS DEPUTY EDITOR

Published: | Updated:

Embattled stars Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jonathan Majors have both controversially appeared on a ballot to pick BET Award nominees.

Diddy, 54, who is facing multiple mounting sexual assault lawsuits and Majors, 34, who was convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, could both land nominations at the awards, due to be held on June 30.

First round voting to determine nominees began this week, per THR, with Combs’ The Love Album: Off the Grid on the ballot for album of the year, while the album track Closer to God with Teyana Taylor is competition for best collaboration. 

Diddy’s guest appearance on Metro Boomin’s Creepin also featuring The Weeknd and 21 Savage, appears on the ballot for video of the year.

Meanwhile Majors could land a best actor nod as he is in contention alongside 100 other performers.

Embattled stars Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jonathan Majors have both controversially appeared on a ballot to pick BET Award nominees
Majors could land a best actor nod as he is in contention alongside 100 other performers

Embattled stars Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jonathan Majors have both controversially appeared on a ballot to pick BET Award nominees

Majors has recently appeared in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Entertainers can be submitted for BET Awards consideration through record labels, studios, managers and representatives - with some categories allowing voting members to submit potential nominees in writing. First round voting closes May 7. 

This comes weeks after Majors was sentenced in New York City for a domestic violence case involving ex-girlfriend Jabbari. 

Regarding the domestic violence incident, which occurred in March 2023, his harassment charge was dismissed and he was sentenced to a probation.

He was also sentenced to a year-long domestic violence intervention program, which he must complete or he will have to spend six months in jail.

Jabbari spoke out against him at the sentencing hearing, claiming that the actor 'is not sorry, he has not accepted responsibility' and would allegedly offend again. 

Last month the legal team representing Combs asked a New York court to dismiss claims the recording artist in 1991 engaged in acts of revenge porn and human trafficking, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by a woman filed last fall.

Diddy's accuser in the case, who has publicly identified herself as Joi Dickerson-Neal, said in legal docs that the musical artist, 54, had drugged and sexually assaulted her in January of 1991 in New York City.

First round voting to determine nominees began this week, per THR , with Combs’ The Love Album: Off the Grid on the ballot for album of the year, while the album track Closer to God with Teyana Taylor is competition for best collaboration

First round voting to determine nominees began this week, per THR , with Combs’ The Love Album: Off the Grid on the ballot for album of the year, while the album track Closer to God with Teyana Taylor is competition for best collaboration

Majors has recently appeared in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp (pictured)

Majors has recently appeared in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp (pictured)

Diddy has denied all allegations made in the suit, with his lawyers calling them 'false, offensive, and salacious.'

Attorneys for the Grammy-winning artist said in a motion filed Friday that the revenge porn and human trafficking allegations 'were brought under statutes that did not exist at the time the alleged misconduct occurred,' according to court docs reviewed by People.

Dickerson-Neal in legal docs she was a student at Syracuse University when she crossed paths with the hip-hop artist, as they dined at a restaurant in Harlem, then went to a recording studio.

In March, Combs' properties in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal authorities in a sex trafficking investigation. 

The criminal investigation is a major escalation in the scrutiny of Combs, who has been the defendant in several recent sexual abuse lawsuits.

In a lawsuit Combs settled the day after it was filed in November, his former protégé and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, sued him alleging years of sexual abuse, including rape. The lawsuit said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed them.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them. Another of Combs' accusers was a woman who said he raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Combs and his attorneys have denied all of the allegations in the lawsuits.

The WeekndJonathan MajorsDiddyNew York

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