Usher shut down rumors that he deleted his X account over the weekend — and gave a simple explanation for why his tweets briefly disappeared.
“Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it! 😂😂😂,” the singer, 45, tweeted on Sunday, September 22. “See you tonight at Intuit Dome ✌🏾👀✌🏾.”
Usher’s previous posts on the platform also reappeared at that time.
Earlier in the weekend, all of Usher’s X posts vanished, leading other social media users to believe that he’d deleted his account. The apparent wiping of his page was so widely discussed that it became a trending topic, with many armchair theorists wondering what could have inspired Usher to seemingly delete his account.
Some of these users speculated that the timing was related to the recent arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is a longtime collaborator of Usher’s. Their work together dates back to Usher’s 1994 debut album, which was executive produced by Diddy, 54.
Diddy was arrested last Monday, September 16, and denied bail. One day later, he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to each count. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison. (Usher has yet to officially comment on Diddy’s arrest.)
Diddy’s legal team filed an appeal for the music mogul to be released on bail, on the condition that he would remain at his home in Florida with 24/7 monitoring by a private security force. A judge rejected that appeal on Wednesday, September 18, ordering Diddy to remain in jail until his trial begins.
Following his arrest, Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo claimed his client is innocent during an interview on CNN’s The Source With Kaitlan Collins.
“He’s innocent. I believe he’s innocent. I believe he’s innocent of the charges,” Agnifilo said on Tuesday, September 17. “He is going to go to trial. And I believe he’s going to win.”
Agnifilo went on to say that his “defense is very well-established,” noting that he has interviewed “different men” who were involved in Diddy’s “intimate situation.”
“There’s not the slightest inkling — according to the interviews that I’ve done — of anything that’s coercive, nonconsensual,” Agnifilo claimed. “Nobody was too drunk; nobody was too high.”
The 14-page indictment outlining the allegations against Diddy said otherwise, claiming that Diddy “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him.” The document also detailed “Freak Offs” hosted by the musician and members of Combs Enterprise where female victims would allegedly be lured into hotel rooms and forced to “engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
