Erika was on her way to a Diddy party. Then she received a message that made her leave the airport.

It was 2007, and Australian mindset coach and author Erika Cramer was living in Florida. Her husband had recently passed away, and she was ready for a change after a decade serving in the US military.

She was pursing a career in modelling in Miami, and one day, received a message on MySpace with an opportunity she couldn't pass up.

An executive producer wanted her to audition for MTV's reality television series that Sean 'Diddy' Combs hosted, Making the Band.

"This seemed so exciting, and it was going into the realm of where I thought I wanted to go," Erika tells Mamamia.

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The producer also invited her to one of Diddy's infamous white parties.

At the time, Erika had been living in Orlando, Florida, whilst the party was being hosted three hours away in Miami. Diddy's team insisted on booking her a flight.

"I'm like, that's weird," Erika says. "Nobody flies to Miami at that time, we all just drove down."

When she got to the airport, the executive producer called her again and asked a question.

"He said, 'Hey, can you send me a photo of you that's not on MySpace? And he was with a group of people I could hear the guys in the background, and instantly I just… I got angry."

Erika asked him what he meant.

"And he was just like, 'You know, a photo that's not on there.'"

Erika at the time. Image: Supplied

She asked him whether he meant a naked photo; and although he denied it, they both knew what he had meant. She decided there and then she wouldn't go.

"I knew. I could just tell," she recalls. "I'm like, this feels off… this doesn't feel good. I was just like, I'm not going. And I left the airport, I went home and I was pissed off.

"And I'm happy that I was angry and I wasn't just offended, because the angry part of me really was like, I'm done," she adds.

Erika looks back at the moment at the airport, where she trusted her intuition, with gratitude. It stemmed from an incident three months prior where she believes a photographer took a photo of her while she was changing.

"I had this gross feeling and I remember not saying anything. And I had promised myself I'm never going to do that again. If I feel it's unsafe, or yucky, I'm going to stick up for myself," she says.

When Erika had the same feeling ahead of Diddy's party, she knew in her gut to go home.

"I just felt it internally. That intuition, that gut feeling was so strong. And when I walked out of that airport, it's like I left it all behind," she shares.

"For me, intuition is not loud. It's not irrational. It's a feeling where your heart starts skipping a beat, where you feel sweaty, where you feel unsafe.

"When you get that feeling… listen to your intuition," she urges. "Intuition is the thing that saves us, as women."

In September, Diddy was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.The arrest followed a 2023 lawsuit he settled against his ex-partner, Cassandra 'Cassie' Ventura, in which she alleged he had physically and sexually assaulted her during their decade-long relationship.In May, a video showing Diddy beating and dragging Cassie in a hotel lobby in 2016 leaked online. The rapper issued an apology for his behaviour on Instagram.

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Diddy has pleaded not-guilty to all charges. "Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defences, and the integrity of the judicial process," Diddy's lawyers said after the arrest.

"In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman."

On October 14, six new lawsuits were filed against Diddy, accusing the music mogul of rape, sexual assault, and molestation, including allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor.

Among the allegations was a claim from a North Carolina man who said he was just 16 years old when Combs sexually assaulted him at one of the rapper's infamous white parties in the Hamptons in 1998.

Whilst just this week, two anonymous male plaintiffs came forward, one who accuses Combs of molesting him at an "audition" when he was 10 and another who says Combs forced him to perform oral sex on Combs and his bodyguard as part of the audition process for Making the Band.

The show, which ran on MTV and ABC in the US and followed contestants as they fought to make a spot in a musical group, has come under renewed scrunity.

Diddy served as executive producer on all 12 seasons of the show, with the music mogul making the final decision on who would be in each band.

Erika can't help but consider what could have happened if she got on the plane — or auditioned.

"Just the other day, when I was watching stuff on TV, it came to me," she told Mamamia.

"I'm like, oh my goodness, I would have been at that party. Not only would I've been at the party, I would have been with Diddy. I would have met everyone because I was auditioning. I would have been in the middle of all of that.

"And as I love people, and I'm a charismatic person, naturally, I know I would have been in a lot of trouble."

Diddy's criminal trial is scheduled for May.

Erika is the author of "Becoming Magnetic". You can read more about the work she does here.

Feature Image: Instagram/@thequeenofconfidence