Comedian Samantha Bee’s ‘Rude’ Run-In With Diddy and The Umbrella Guy
The Daily Beast Podcast co-host hilariously explained how her brief encounter with Diddy and his manservant ended with hand sanitizer.
Photo illustration by The Daily Beast
Comedian Samantha Bee revealed on The Daily Beast Podcast that she had a chance encounter with Diddy “ages and ages ago.” Bee was not invited to one of the Bad Boy mogul’s alleged “freak offs,” she recounted, but hands did get dirty.
Setting the scene, Bee told podcast co-host Joanna Coles that she was at the Democratic National Convention—“I can’t remember which one”—when Diddy walked in with the man then-known as his manservant and umbrella holder, Fonzworth Bentley.
“I was grabbing whomever I could to ask them questions about what was going on. So I went up to him and I said, ‘Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions,’” said Bee.
“It was in an area where you would expected to be interviewed,” she added. “So, it wasn’t so outrageous.”
After the interview, Bee said Diddy “like instantly” turned to Bentley. He “held his hands out helplessly, and his attendant squirted copious amounts of Purell into his hands... And then he softly rubbed his hands together to extinguish whatever microbes I had put on his hands.”
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The way in which it was done was “so rude,” said Bee. “I do understand you shake a lot of people’s hands and your hands feel dirty, but you don’t typically need to sanitize while the person is standing before you.”
Sean P. Diddy Combs and Derek Watkins, FKA Fonzworth Bentley, during The 77th Annual Academy Awards - Governors Ball at Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Getty Images
Looking back, Bee shared an insightful takeaway from the experience: “It occurred to me, in light of all these ‘freak offs,’ it’s always the germaphobes who want to go home and recreate Caligula every Tuesday afternoon.”
Amid ongoing allegations and lawsuits filed against Diddy, who faces charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, Bentley (whose real name is Derek Watkins) has so far not commented on his former employer.
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