Family Over Everything

Since the untimely passing of his soul mate, Kim Porter, Sean “Diddy” Combs and their children have experienced their share of grief and growing pains. In the aftermath, the self-proclaimed bad boy for life has had to learn that his loved ones come first—and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

- Dream Hampton

The outpouring of love and grief following Kim Porter’s sudden death last fall surprised even those of us who knew her. On the morning of November 15, 2018, one month before her 48th birthday, she didn’t wake up. She was a stunning, poised, worldclass beauty who lived a glamorous public life, yet she never considered herself a celebrity. Weeks after her passing from pneumonia, strangers were still posting heartfelt tributes. It felt as if we were mourning royalty.

Kim started out as a model whose beauty took her from Columbus, Georgia, to New York City in the early nineties. Sean “Diddy” Combs (he’ll always be Puff to me) had a crush on her when she was working part-time at Uptown Records. He was an ambitious record man who dreamed of making great music and building a cultural institution. When they fell in love, those of us who knew Puff understood that she was The One. They would turn out a red carpet with what she called their “Black love.” “When we got dressed up, I couldn’t believe anyone could be that beautiful in real life,” Puff told me in this interview. “She was like a gazelle.”

Like all great women, Kim was complex and known as much for her kindness as for her self-possession. She and best friends Eboni Elektra and Nicole Johnson were instrumental in promoting talent like Janelle Monáe under the banner of their company, Three Brown Girls. Kim’s small, tight-knit circle of friends sustained her, but it was her four children who were the center of her world. Privately, Kim helped Puff grow into a better man and father. When she began dating him, she was a single mother and insisted that she and her son with Al B. Sure, Quincy Brown, came as a package deal. Puff honors that to this day.