The tragic fallout from the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs documentary continues to affect the artists who spoke out, with Aubrey O’Day being the latest impacted. The singer missed the Danity Kane reunion show in Los Angeles after becoming so sick that she had to be hospitalized. Aubrey O’Day’s illness ultimately caused such an overwhelming emotional response from watching the documentary that it triggered her severe physical reaction.
The news of O’Day’s illness sent a ripple of disappointment through the Danity Kane fandom, who were looking forward to seeing the group perform as part of “The Untold Chapter” comeback tour. According to TMZ, O’Day was rushed to the emergency room on Wednesday, December 10, experiencing a terrifying combination of symptoms, including “vertigo, fever, dizziness, migraine, chills, and vomiting all night.”
The singer confirmed via social media that she was “heartbroken” to miss the Los Angeles show at the El Rey Theatre, where fellow members Aundrea Fimbres and D. Woods ultimately performed as a duo. However, she emphasized that the illness was completely out of her control.
Aubrey O’Day’s Illness Stemmed From Re-Traumatization
O’Day made it clear that her physical breakdown was directly tied to the highly publicized Netflix documentary, Sean Combs: The Reckoning. The singer claimed the act of watching the series, which exposed horrific allegations and abuse across Diddy’s career, felt like reliving her own painful experiences within the Bad Boy label.
“Watching everything from Netflix unfold publicly, seeing parts of a world I only knew from inside my own limited lens, was like living it again, but this time with context and truth outside of me,” O’Day told TMZ. “I didn’t think it would traumatize me the way it did, but watching the pieces line up from a distance outside of myself has felt like my nervous system was reliving everything with more clarity than I ever even asked for.” She also acknowledged that sharing her story for the documentary—which included reading a sexually explicit email allegedly from Diddy and revealing her belief that she was fired from Danity Kane for refusing his sexual advances, had been a “heavy time.”
As BOSSIP reported, the documentary detailed O’Day’s claims that Diddy was creating different expectations for her, telling her she was the “looker” and allegedly sending her sexually explicit emails, one of which chillingly read: “I don’t want to just f**k you. I want to turn you out.” Six months after rejecting his advances, O’Day was fired from the group, which she believes was the direct result of her refusal to participate sexually.
The stress and trauma were only compounded by the cruel comments O’Day received on Instagram from followers who, unaware of the severity of her breakdown, suggested she should have been “tougher” and performed the show anyway. O’Day made a plea for understanding, reiterating her desire to be there: “My heart is broken because I never want to let my DK sisters or the fans down.”
The hospitalization resulting from O’Day’s illness serves as a stark reminder of the deep psychological toll that trauma, and the public retelling of that trauma, can take on a person’s physical health. While her Danity Kane sisters had to carry on as a duo for the night, O’Day reassured fans that she is focused on her recovery and plans to rejoin the tour as soon as her body allows, specifically hoping to be ready for the Connecticut show on the 13th.
