A scandal surrounding a supposed memoir purportedly by model, actress, and former Sean “Diddy” Combs girlfriend Kim Porter was selling on Amazon back in October 2024. The book, Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, From the Other Side, became a bestseller before being pulled from the site after outcry from Porter’s family, her children, specifically, who vehemently denied it as a fabrication.
Background of the Memoir
The book, apparently written by Porter, surfaced many years after her early death due to pneumonia in 2018. This book was said to be filled with personal experiences of her life, especially about Diddy, whom she had dated for 13 years until 2007. Under the pen name “Jamal T. Millwood,” the memoir published its accusations of abuses against Combs committed while they were together.
Though the book created great hype at its very beginning, those who have been close to Porter condemned it soon after its publication. Al B. Sure!, one of the first public figures who assailed the memoir in public as “calculated fiction” and was the father to one of the Porter’s children, also sued Amazon and the author for cease-and-desist.
He labeled the book’s claims of being libelous, especially the fabricated stories that used him and Diddy for their salacious and very personal anecdotes.
Family Response
Kim Porter’s children were the most vocal of all responders. Christian Combs and his siblings, Jessie and D’Lila, released a statement denouncing the book as full of lies. They stated that Porter never penned any such book, and whoever claims otherwise is lying. “The charges that our mom wrote a book are simply untrue,” the statement read. “Any manuscripts or documents purporting to be by Miss Porter were not authenticated.”
Quincy Taylor Brown also took to social media, along with others saying essentially the same thing, urging fans not to support the book.
Amazon Response
Within 24 hours of the public outcry and veiled threats through a legal action notice, Amazon removed the memoir from all its platforms, stating that “we were made aware of a dispute regarding this title” and had decided to remove the book. The very rapid rise and equally fast removal of the book would seem to exemplify the power of online marketplaces in distributing allegedly unauthorized or defamatory works, and there is thus considerable interest and concern in asking how much vetting takes place in such cases of self-published material.
Legal and Ethical Concerns
Al B. Sure! has also been critical of the book due to its inaccuracies and has taken more extreme measures to avoid the book’s further circulation. In addition to his cease-and-desist order, Sure’s lawyer warned that they would even sue for defamation if the book was still being sold. This legal fight reflects the problems involved in trying to preserve the legacy of a person, especially in unauthenticated histories compiled years after someone’s death.
Not even the publisher, Todd Christopher Guzze, was exempted from the scandal. Yet, even here, Guzze’s silence under the pen name Millwood is unimaginably quiet. The controversy ran so deep that several reports have even affiliated the pen name with some music figures who are highly profiled; the more conspiracy and scandal to the memoir.
Broader Implications
The story puts a stamp on bigger questions in celebrity memoirs, especially those published posthumously. Do authenticity questions take precedent when the subject is not around to verify the contents? The Kim Porter memoir saga puts into question dos and don’ts in publishing sensitive material, especially keen opposition from family members.
Indeed, this event has repercussions in terms of the role of platforms like Amazon in monitoring or policing the contents, especially on self-publishings. Even when Amazon finally pulled down the book, it had by then become the number one bestseller, which puts into perspective just how quickly such books can spread before one can institute repressive steps.
The Kim’s Lost Words debacle reminds one of the outrage surrounding celebrity legacies and what roles both publishers and retailers ought to assume in ethical functions. But Kim Porter’s children have publicly announced that their mother neither wrote this memoir nor authorized its use, and a lawsuit is underway in an attempt to rectify the defamation contained within its pages.
This case brings into sharp relief the need for far greater oversight concerning all posthumous publications, especially those of highly visible individuals.
