The pictures exploded onto the internet. Sean “Diddy” Combs, 53, took a leisurely jaunt through Manhattan one of the first days it felt like spring while holding hands with a woman whose name no one recognized. Both dressed head-to-toe in black. Both looking comfortable. Neither had any idea of the firestorm that was about to hit.
That woman was Shawntya Joseph. And within 24 hours, her name was suddenly everywhere.
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When One Walk Changed Everything
December 9, 2022. Diddy and Joseph were spotted strolling through New York City by Israeli paparazzi cameras. She had on a black turtleneck, leather pants and a bucket hat. He wore a puffer jacket and slacks to match out with her. The pictures, published first in The Daily Mail, showed them hand-holding, conversation-stopping and gazing into each other’s eyes.
The next day, Diddy posted an announcement on Twitter: He had welcomed his seventh child, a daughter he named Love Sean Combs. The mother, Dana Tran, was a 28-year-old cyber-security specialist.
Social media erupted. Who was this woman he’d been photographed with? What was the timeline? And how did Yung Miami, the rapper he’d been openly dating, factor into all this?
For that first question: a 28-year-old model of sorts living in Brooklyn, who’d been quietly building her brand for years.
Who Shawntya Joseph Really Is
A child of Brooklyn with roots spreading across continents, she was born Sarah Joseph on May 5, 1994. Her mother was from Guyana, her father from Panama. She was both cultures.
Joseph went on to study psychology at the State University of New York, Old Westbury College. But she veered off the traditional career path after graduate school. Fashion and modeling called louder.
Her Instagram account, @shawntyaaaaa, now has 220,000 followers. The feed depicts her in designer outfits, posing in swimwear shots and chronicling travel to places most of us can only dream of. She also has a YouTube channel where she posts vlogs and fashion videos, but her subscriber count is much lower, closer to 10,000.
The content itself is typical influencer fare. Nothing groundbreaking. But she’d created something genuine before December 2022 turned her name into a trending topic.
The Ghana Story Nobody Expected
In a YouTube video he shared before the Diddy incident, Joseph spoke about being stuck in Ghana for six months during COVID-19. She had been visiting her mother’s homeland when the pandemic hit and borders closed.
“I was so peaceful there, I loved it there honestly,” she shared with fans.
She’s never been to Panama, where her father is from. In said video, she had alluded to wanting to take the trip at some point. When she’s asked about her relationship status, her response now reads differently: “I haven’t met anyone I can connect with. I don’t go looking for love. I want it to find me.”
Three months later, one of hip-hop’s biggest names was photographed with her.
Setting The Record Straight on the Timeline
Except here’s what really went down, because the timing got pretty mangled:
Love Sean Combs was born on October 15, 2022. And for almost two months, Diddy kept the secret. The photographs of him with Joseph were taken on December 9. He revealed the baby’s birth Dec. 10, one day after those photographs appeared.
So the baby didn’t arrive “just before” the photos, as many headlines claimed. She’d already spent nearly two months in the world. But the optics looked terrible. Diddy parading around with Joseph and keeping his newborn daughter secret felt very much the kind of mess people have come to anticipate from such a complicated personal life.
DJ Akademiks called out the situation on social media, calling Joseph one of “Diddy’s harem of side chicks.” That’s when Diddy clapped back on Twitter, by defending Yung Miami in particular: “Yung Miami is NOT my side chick. Hasn’t ever been, never will be.”
He referenced Joseph not at all.
What She’s Said About Herself
Joseph has been unusually candid about cosmetic procedures, even answering questions bluntly on YouTube in videos. She’s admitted to having liposuction in Colombia on her stomach, thighs and buttocks. When fans inquire about a Brazilian butt lift, she shuts it down: No, she has not done that.
She is 5’4 and has spoken about weighing from 135 to 145 pounds, depending on the time of year and her workout regimen.
Her Instagram bio reads: Matthew 7:7-8 “ask and it will be given to you; seek and ye shall find.” The biblical reference is to Christian faith, but she does not make religion a major component of her public content.
Financial records indicate she took a $4,445 Paycheck Protection Program loan in May 2021, which was repaid in full by January 2022. Her net worth is estimated by various outlets to be between $600,000 and $800,000 Those numbers are speculation based on her presence on social media and work in the modeling industry.
Where Things Stand Now
Joseph never publicly addressed Diddy. No interviews. No statements. No cryptic Instagram posts. Instead she allowed the images to speak for themselves, which in this case meant allowing them time to fade from the news cycle.
She continues to update her Instagram regularly. Still makes YouTube videos. Still models. The December incident raised her follower count, but she hasn’t tried to milk the attention or pivot into celebrity gossip territory.
Rob Kardashian is one of her 350,000 followers on Instagram. Diddy does, for what that’s worth.
The Brooklyn-bred psychology major with dreams of one day making her way to Panama found herself on the right side of an internet hoax. She was snapped by paparazzi hand-in-hand with a music mogul who declared the coming birth of a secret baby the following day, and yet she somehow emerged from the chaos without being dragged through the mud.
That’s either fantastic luck or a really great sense of when to keep your trap shut. With her degree in psychology, maybe it’s both.
A walk through Manhattan went viral for Shawntya Joseph. But she was making her career long before those cameras clicked, and still is now that they’ve moved on.
