John Legend’s longtime manager Ty Stiklorius said she experienced a “terrifying situation” at a Diddy party and almost quit her career because of the “toxic” industry.
Stiklorius wrote a New York Times piece published Oct.31. titled, “The Music Industry Is Toxic. After P. Diddy, We Can Clean It Up.”
The article addressed her perspective on the industry and an incident she called “an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry that actively fostered sexual misconduct and exploited the lives and bodies of those hoping to make it in the business.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 13: Ty Stiklorius attends the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
She said she attended one of Combs’ New Year’s Eve yacht parties in St. Barts years ago with her brother. She claimed that she was “directed into a bedroom by a man,” and is not sure of “who he was or if he had any connection to Mr. Combs.” She went on to say she felt panicked at the time of the incident, and has since realized this is part of the norm in this industry — a norm that she hopes will change with the developments of the Diddy case.
“To this day, I can’t remember how I managed to talk my way out of that terrifying situation,” she wrote.
“Perhaps my nervous babbling — ‘My brother’s on this boat, and he’s probably looking for me!’ — convinced him to unlock the bedroom door and let me go,” Stiklorius claimed.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 03: (L-R) Ty Stiklorius and John Legend attend MusiCares Persons of the Year Honoring Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson at Los Angeles Convention Center on February 03, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
She noted that she assumed at the time that her alleged “experience was an anomaly” and that it was “just one guy behaving badly at a drunken party,” but has since come to believe this was a prevalent, predatory behavior in the industry.
“After 20 years as a music industry executive … [I now know] what happened that night was no aberration,” she wrote.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – OCTOBER 26: Sean Combs is seen on October 26, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by MEGA/GC Images) Getty Images
Stiklorius added that her “early experiences with predators, and those that enabled them, nearly led me to give up on the music business,” but her friendship with John Legend changed that.
She shared a similar story to demonstrate the prevalence of the issue.
“A few years after the boat incident, while pursuing my M.B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, I attended a dinner where a senior music executive slipped his key card to me under the table, an unsubtle invitation to his hotel room. I declined,” she wrote.
Stiklorius questioned, “How many women were coerced, abused, assaulted and silenced on their way to their dreams — trapped by men who controlled access and who made us believe that the key to the kingdom was a key card to their hotel room?”
She went on to say she hoped the industry can move forward and “turn the page on a culture of exploitation and abuse.” (RELATED: Prominent Music Producer Metro Boomin Faces Rape Allegations)
In addition to Legend, Stiklorius’ company Friends at Work represents artists including Charlie Puth and The National.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
