Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has officially changed his middle name to Love.
The ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ hitmaker – who has previously been known by various other monikers including Puff Daddy and P. Diddy – has shown off a picture of his driver’s license, revealing he has dropped John from his legal name.
Alongside an Instagram post featuring his license and another photo of him writing “Love” inside a heart alongside different versions of his signature, he wrote: “Look what I just got in the mail today… IT’S OFFICIAL!!! WELCOME TO THE LOVE ERA.(sic)”
He also shared an extract from a court document – which was dated 21 January 2020 – in a second Instagram post and wrote: “Imma need y’all to take me seriously on this one!!! #TheLoveEra LOVE (sic)”
The 51-year-old rapper first filed a petition in Los Angeles in 2019 for the name change, but two years before then, he announced on Twitter he’d decided he wanted to be known as Brother Love.
He declared in November 2017: “I decided to change my name again! My new name is LOVE aka Brother Love. #TakeDat (sic)”
In an accompanying video, he said: “Hey what’s up y’all? I have some very, very serious news. I’ve been praying on this, and I decided — I know it’s risky, it could come off as corny to some people, like yo — I decided to change my name again.
“I’m just not who I am before. I’m something different. So my new name is Love, AKA Brother Love. I will not be answering to Puffy, Diddy, Puff Daddy, or any of my other monikers but Love or Brother Love, okay? It’s my birthday, I feel good. God is the greatest, I give all the glory, and I thank my momma and daddy.”
But two days later, he insisted he was “only joking” and was simply introducing a new “alter ego”.
He said: “Due to the overwhelming response to the media out there, and just to not wanting there to be any confusion, I was only joking. I didn’t change my name.
“It was just part of one of my alter egos, and one of my alter egos is Love.
“To set the record straight, because I have a lot of press to do in the next couple weeks, you can address me by any of my older names, but if you still wanna call me Love, you can call me Love, baby. But I was only playing.”
