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Sign up for The Media Today<\/strong><\/a>, CJR\u2019s daily newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n In November 2023, Elizabeth Wagmeister was at an airport in Singapore, en route to her honeymoon in Bali, when she got a call from a source who said they had a big story for her. A couple of hours later, the news broke that Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs was being accused by an ex-girlfriend of rape, physical abuse, and sex trafficking. Wagmeister had nowhere to report the news; she had recently left a role at Variety<\/em>, where she covered Harvey Weinstein and helped break the story<\/a> of the sexual harassment allegations against Matt Lauer, and hadn\u2019t yet started her next job, as an entertainment reporter with celebrity.land. \u201cIt ruined the first three days of my honeymoon,\u201d she said. \u201cI just knew that this story was going to be different than anything else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the end, it didn\u2019t matter that Wagmeister had to sit that one out, because the saga of Combs\u2019s journey through the legal system was only getting started. Nearly two years on, Combs, one of the most famous and powerful music producers alive, has faced more than seventy lawsuits from ex-girlfriends, former romantic partners, and employees, among others, and has been convicted on two counts<\/a> of transportation to engage in prostitution. (He was acquitted on the most serious charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking; he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.) Wagmeister broke the news of the existence of a surveillance video showing Combs beating his ex-girlfriend, and was the first to report that a federal grand jury would hear from Combs\u2019s accusers. She covered his trial in court and plans to return to New York later this week, when Combs is scheduled to be sentenced. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n LS: Combs\u2019s sentencing will close the loop on a massive story on your beat. What was it like covering the trial?<\/strong><\/p>\n EW: I\u2019ve covered many high-profile stories; I had never seen anything like this. You had journalists from around the world coming to New York City to be in that courtroom. When you arrived at the courthouse, you had already had a day because of just getting in there and getting through all the chaos. But aside from that, the amount of work was enormous. I would be sitting in the courtroom\u2014or some days in the overflow room\u2014and you can\u2019t have a computer or your phone, so you\u2019re just taking notes with a pen and paper. You\u2019re observing. You\u2019re digesting everything. And then I would have hits lined up throughout the day, so I would run out of the courthouse five to ten times per day to go live on air.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was on with Laura Coates most nights during the 11pm hour. She was my partner in crime throughout this trial. We would sit in court together. We broke the verdict live on air together, and we would do her show most nights at 11pm. So if you do the math, that means we\u2019re not off set until midnight. There wasn\u2019t a lot of sleep involved. I was waking up anywhere between 4:30 to 6am, and I was going to bed most nights at 1:30 or 2. I was pregnant, and nobody knew. I was in my first trimester the entire Diddy trial, and I had not told my bosses. I had not told anyone.<\/p>\n A lot of the analysis of the trial has focused on the fact that Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges, and therefore the prosecution was a failure. Is that how you see it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n My role as an entertainment journalist is to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. This is one of the most powerful figures to ever exist in the world of Hollywood, media, entertainment, business, fashion, and he not only had to stand a criminal trial, but he is sitting in the MDC [Metropolitan Detention Center] in Brooklyn. He will not spend the rest of his life behind bars, but when you are Sean Combs and you\u2019re used to living in mansions and partying on yachts, one day in jail is a lot\u2014not to mention one year or two years or three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n