Singer Usher appeared to abruptly delete his posts on X over the weekend, and speculation turned to his friendship with music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was arrested Tuesday after being indicted on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Usher hasn’t been implicated in any crimes. Combs has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.
However, Usher’s posts returned Sunday evening, with the singer claiming he had been ‘hacked’.
Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it! 😂😂😂 See you tonight at Intuit Dome ✌🏾👀✌🏾— Usher Raymond IV (@Usher) September 22, 2024
Usher’s friendship with Combs goes back to the 1990s, when he lived with Diddy for a year to learn about the industry.
“I got a chance to see some things. I went there to see the lifestyle, and I saw it. I don’t know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at,” Usher told Howard Stern in 2016. “I had curiosity of my own. I just didn’t understand it. It was pretty wild. It was crazy.”
A representative for Usher didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the singer P!nk deleted virtually all her posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, except for two reposts of other users’ tweets, one in 2017 and the other in 2016.
She hasn’t been implicated in Combs’s case. A representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sudden disappearance from X by Usher (whose posts are now back) and P!nk is also notable as both are on tour. In contrast, superstar Jennifer Lopez, who dated Combs more than 20 years ago, hasn’t scrubbed her social media feed though she hasn’t commented publicly on his arrest.
The indictment accuses him of abusing, threatening and coercing women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
The charges also threaten his various business ventures, which have been estimated to be worth about $1 billion. Diddy has been in the business since 1990, when he started as an intern at New York’s Uptown Records before founding his own record label, Bad Boy Records. He later branched out to clothing, several alcohol- and cannabis-related deals, as well as acting.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect that Usher’s posts are visible again after what he described as a ‘hack’. The story previously stated the posts had been deleted.