Podcast Summary: Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Episode: From Private Jets to Prison Hooch: Diddy Caught with "Toilet Wine" in Prison | Sean Diddy Combs

Date: November 12, 2025
Host: Ashleigh Banfield
Notable Guest: Jean Borrello (former federal inmate)

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives into the remarkable turn in Sean "Diddy" Combs' life, from his immense wealth and celebrity status to his adjustment to federal prison life following his conviction on prostitution-related charges. Ashleigh Banfield investigates the prison scandal involving “toilet wine”—Diddy’s alleged involvement in brewing and consuming illicit prison alcohol—and unpacks the intricacies of prison culture, rules, and consequences. The episode features significant insight from Jean Borrello, a former federal inmate, who offers an insider’s perspective on prison alcohol, hierarchy, hustling, and adjustment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Diddy's New Reality: "From Private Jets to Prison Hooch"

• Transition to Prison Life:

  • Diddy, days after beginning his more-than-four-year prison term, was reportedly caught with “prison hooch,” or “toilet wine.”
  • Banfield underscores the irony: “Sean Diddy Combs has officially traded designer suits and private jets for prison garb and toilet wine.” (00:57)

• Fascination with Toilet Wine:

  • Ashleigh openly admits her curiosity: “I have always been fascinated with toilet wine…how you actually make it and how on earth it could be hygienic if it's made in a toilet. Right? I'm not gonna lie, I've always wanted to know.” (01:17)

2. Diddy's Early Prison Incidents & Status Changes

• Disciplinary Issues:

  • Diddy received disciplinary action for making an unauthorized “three-person call” in prison—known as “patching”—where a third, unauthorized party joins a call.
  • Prison officials recommended Diddy lose 90 days of phone privileges and commissary, coinciding with his 56th birthday. (04:08)
  • Notable quote: “Inmates are only allowed to talk to approved contacts...If you add multiple people to a call, that's something that's called patching. That is strictly forbidden.” (03:49)

• Legal Defense and Publicist’s Statement:

  • Diddy's publicist insisted the call was a procedural attorney-client matter and “he’s focused on growth and committed to positive change." (04:55)

• Rehabilitation and Privilege:

  • Diddy joined the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), which can reduce sentences by up to a year, and began working as an assistant in the prison chapel (“a serious power position behind bars”). (09:34)
  • Chapel assistants prepare “call out lists”—determining who gets to leave their cell for programs.
  • Insight: “If you prepare the list, you're the guy that everybody wants to please. So, yeah, it is considered a serious power position behind bars.” (10:32)

3. The Truth About "Toilet Wine": Myths, Methods, and Meaning

With guest Jean Borrello (13:10)

• Toilet Wine: Definition and Method

  • “It's called hooch…different ways to make it…with orange peels, sugar…If you don’t let it ‘breathe,’ it could actually be like a bomb. It can blow up.” (13:29)

  • Toilet wine is not brewed in the toilet bowl—but typically in garbage bags hidden in the toilet tank for concealment (not for hygiene or temperature reasons). (15:24)

    Jean Borrello: “They'll put it in the [garbage] bag and…let it sit in [the toilet tank]…they won't actually put it in the toilet bowl.” (15:24)

• Fermentation, Smell, and Trade:

  • The process takes days, the result “smells really bad”—thus the need for a clever hiding space. (15:50)
  • Making hooch is “a bona fide business behind bars”—inmates pay others to brew it, especially for special occasions. (16:20)

• Irony Not Lost:

  • Banfield notes: “Diddy may be the first prison inmate to be busted with toilet wine who once owned a vodka brand worth upwards of a billion dollars.” (11:17)

4. Currency, Hustling, and Adjustment

• High-Profile Prisoners as "Big Business":

  • Jean Borrello reveals everyone with money becomes a target for hustlers in prison:

    “Everyone's so happy that he's [Diddy] in the jail right now because they see currency. So all they're doing right now is going up to his cell and trying to sell him everything that they have possible...” (17:04)

  • Even for Diddy: “They're all going to his cell, trying to sell something to him because they know he has money.” (17:16)

• Adjustment in First Weeks:

  • Banfield reads Diddy’s team's statement: “Any high-profile individual in a new environment…there will be many rumors and exaggerated stories throughout his time there, most of them untrue. We ask that people give him the benefit of the doubt, the privacy to focus on his personal growth with grace and purpose.” (17:38)
  • Borrello: “Everyone does [get in trouble early]…in the feds he’s hanging out with all the New York guys...they're all drinking hooch, they're all doing it.” (18:09)

5. Consequences

• On Losing "Good Time":

  • Borrello clarifies the impact—a federal inmate can lose “good time” (sentence reduction for good behavior) and can’t get it back. (14:33)

    “The feds, once you lose it, you can't…because they will recommend days to be lost on this kind of ticket.” (14:33)

• Rehabilitation Program:

  • Diddy’s involvement in RDAP is at odds with the hooch allegations, possibly jeopardizing his eligibility for a sentence reduction.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ashleigh Banfield: “From champagne rooms to cell blocks, the fall does not get much steeper than that.” (18:41)
• Jean Borrello: “If you don’t let it ‘breathe,’ it could actually be like a bomb. So it actually can blow up and everything will spray...everywhere.” (13:36)
• Banfield (on prison hooch): “Toilet wine, on the other hand, is basically a fermented cocktail of Fanta sugar and apples. Different recipe, same result.” (12:18)
• Borrello on Diddy’s status: “All they're doing right now is going up to his cell and trying to sell him everything that they have possible, actually trying to get on salary with him to make his bed, clean his cell, go extra shopping for him…” (17:04)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:57 – Diddy's first days in prison; toilet wine scandal
• 03:21 – The three-person phone call and its implications
• 04:55 – Publicist’s statement and disciplinary consequences
• 09:34 – Diddy’s jobs and privileges in prison chapel
• 11:17 – Explanation: What is toilet wine and why it’s ironic for Diddy
• 13:10 – Jean Borrello explains all things prison hooch
• 14:33 – Losing “good time” and what that means in federal prison
• 15:24 – The step-by-step process (and myths) of making toilet wine
• 17:04 – Prison economy and why inmates hustle high-profile newcomers
• 18:09 – Social adjustment and who Diddy is likely hanging out with

Tone and Style

Banfield’s irreverent, inquisitive style sets a conversational, story-driven tone throughout the episode, mixing journalistic curiosity with sardonic commentary: “Man, oh man. From champagne rooms to cell blocks, the fall does not get much steeper than that.” (18:41) Jean Borrello’s candor adds authenticity and detail, demystifying prison rituals for listeners.

Conclusion

This episode gives an extensive, inside look at the realities facing Diddy in federal prison, illuminating both the mundane and the bizarre aspects—from discipline and rehabilitation to brewing illicit alcohol and navigating economic and social hierarchies among inmates. The central image of Diddy, a mogul who once fronted a vodka empire, now trading in "toilet wine," becomes a pointed symbol for the episode’s exploration of downfall, adaptation, and survival behind bars.