Nicole Daedone, who’s in jail awaiting her sentencing for crimes related to her “orgasmic meditation” business, condemned what she believes is a double standard reflected in the outcome of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ case.
“Diddy basically gets off while Rachel and I get convicted for what could be twenty years,” Daedone said in a statement given exclusively to NBC News, referring to former company executive and co-defendant Rachel Cherwitz. “That should tell you everything you need to know about how we (society) view women’s sexuality.”
Last month, a federal jury in Brooklyn found Daedone and Cherwitz guilty of forced labor conspiracy. Federal prosecutors in New York alleged in their indictment that they targeted victims of trauma to become members of their company and manipulated them into performing sex acts and going into debt, among other things. The government said the two women “coerced their victims to sexually service OneTaste’s current and prospective investors, clients and employees.” Daedone and Cherwitz denied the claims.
They are currently in jail awaiting their sentencing, which is scheduled for September. They face up to 20 years in prison.
“The case operated at an emotional level, not a legal or rational one. It made perfect sense to me: a self-possessed sexual woman is presumed guilty; in the current culture she can never be proven innocent,” Daedone said.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Daedone’s statement.
Daedone founded women’s wellness company OneTaste in 2004 and grew it into a $12 million business with thousands of followers, winning celebrity fans such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Khloe Kardashian. But an explosive 2018 Bloomberg article and a subsequent 2022 Netflix documentary “Orgasm Inc.” featured former employees who said they were subjected to a toxic environment. Daedone and Cherwitz, who had been head of sales for the company, were indicted in 2023.
Daedone said her conviction is unjust in comparison to hip hop mogul Combs’ acquittal last week on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Combs was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. His attorneys called the verdict “a victory” after prosecutors for seven weeks painted him as the leader of a criminal enterprise who sex trafficked two of his former girlfriends.
The prostitution crimes carry maximum sentences of up to 10 years each, but experts don’t expect him to receive that much.
Maurene Comey, who led the team of prosecutors in Combs’ trial, repeatedly played the security footage of Combs brutally beating Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Prosecutors told jurors that Combs used violence, drugs and blackmail to force Ventura and another girlfriend known as “Jane,” to have sex with male escorts in drug fueled encounters he dubbed “freak offs.”
NBC News has reached out to Combs’ team for comment.