Diddy is making a bit of Father’s Day news early after the Friday night airing of his interview with Nightline‘s Martin Bashir. While Bashir covered a lot of ground with Diddy, discussing his new movie, Get Him To The Greek, as well as his life as a music, fashion, and television mogul — and the NBA Finals — the most intriguing portion of the sit-down was Bashir’s questioning about fatherhood.
WATCH Nightline asks Diddy about fatherhood at 6:13 mark in video.
When asked if he enjoyed being a dad, Diddy said yes but admitted that it was the area that he did not consider himself most successful, citing that his kids “deserved more (of his) personal time.”
That response jump-started a series of questions about Diddy’s parental discretion that made the hip-hop figure visibly annoyed at times.
Bashir suggested that Diddy was setting a bad example as a role model by having six kids by multiple women.
Diddy defended himself, saying, “All of my kids are taken care of. They all go to the best schools.” Bashir quipped, “But you don’t live with them.”
Nightline aired footage of the VH1 show My Super Sweet 16, celebrating Diddy’s son Justin. That episode made the news when it aired in February because Diddy gave Justin a Maybach car worth more than $360,000. Bashir asked Diddy what many people wanted to know — “Do you think it was appropriate to buy your 16-year-old son a Maybach car worth almost $400,000?”
Diddy seemed put off by the question, replying that he can give his kids whatever he wanted. But as Bashir continued to press the issue, Diddy grew increasingly annoyed.
When Bashir asked if giving such a lavish gift imposed a “sensible lesson,” Diddy said, “I feel the way I raise my children, you know, I don’t have to explain to you or anybody else because nobody knows the way I raise my children.”
A persistent Bashir tried an additional time to get Diddy to admit that the gesture was excessive, but Diddy stood his ground.
“It wasn’t even about a lesson,” he said with attitude. “It’s what I wanted to do. I can do whatever I want to do with my children. And you can’t question me about it. Nobody can question me about what I do with my children.”
I’d like to interject and remind Diddy that actually there is someone who can question him about what he does with his children, and that someone is a little old government agency called Social Services. However, spoiling one’s child is not its area of focus.
I do agree with Bashir on this issue. I don’t think it makes Diddy a bad father because he bought his child an excessive gift, but a 16-year-old kid does not need a car that costs nearly double that of the national median home price. And I don’t care if his dad can afford it.
Ironically, when Diddy met Bashir for the first time for this interview, he greeted him with enthusiasm, hugging him and revealing that he was a fan of Bashir’s work. But he confessed, “I got a little bit nervous.” At least we now know that those nerves were uneasy for good reason. If you remember, Bashir was the reporter who interviewed the late Michael Jackson for the disturbing television documentary, “Living With Michael Jackson.”
In other news this week, tragedy hit multiple times as the music business lost members from three iconic groups: Tony Peluso of The Carpenters, Marvin Isley of The Isley Brothers, and Stuart Cable from Stereophonics. A-listers joined for the World Cup Opening Ceremony, and Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Chris Brown also made headlines
