Danity Kane is over -- again

Aug. 8, 2014 11:47 AM PT

Danity Kane is done – again.

After launching a comeback last year – which included a reunion tour and their first new music in six years -- the urban-pop girl group is calling it quits. And the split is described as rather acrimonious.

In a three-page letter that included separate and joint statements from members Aubrey O’Day and Shannon Bex released on Friday, the two confirm reports that an incident between O’Day and third member Dawn Richard caused the split.

Earlier this week there were reports that a recording session at an L.A. studio turned violent with a disagreement resulting in Richard hitting O’Day.

“During a recent group meeting, a business conversation took a turn for the worst when my group member punched me in the back of my head while I was speaking to another associate. To be clear, she was not physically engaged or threatened prior to her attack on me,” O’Day wrote in an emotional statement. “I cannot condone or excuse any form of physical violence, particularly at the hands of someone I considered family.”

“It breaks my heart that this violence is followed by no sign of remorse,” O’Day wrote.

A request for comment from Richard was not yet returned.

Bex corroborated O’Day’s claims of violence in her statement: “As for the actions that have brought us to this broken ending, I cannot speak for anyone or explain their internal struggles that prompted this heartbreaking sequence of events. All I know is what I have seen. I did not witness a shouting match, a cat fight or a brawl. I witnessed a single direct punch.”

Last year four of the five original members — Andrea Fimbres, Richard, O’Day and Bex — announced they would reunite without the involvement of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who put the group together on the third season of the hit reality series “Making the Band.”

The group’s fifth member, D. Woods, declined to return because she wanted to focus on her solo career, but later claimed she wasn’t invited back.

In May the group issued its first single in six years, “Lemonade,” and kicked off a comeback tour. But the reunion was bittersweet.

Fimbres announced she was departing the group to start a family and while she completed the tour, she didn’t perform new material with the group.

“No doubt, we have experienced significant trials and tribulations this year. From starting off without a member, to losing another, to where we stand now, all of those dark days have shined a light on some undeniable truths,” O’Day and Bex wrote.

“Being a part of a “girl group” is so much more than how well an individual member may sing or dance or charm or act. Rather, no matter how talented you may be, you need to be relentlessly committed to self-sacrifice and the good of the whole,” their joint statement continued. “No team can function without every member having these traits, and this is why you see time and time again various groups crumble.”

After being launched in 2005, the band’s first two albums shot straight to No. 1.

But after four years of on-camera internal turmoil, Combs dramatically disbanded the group and kept Richard as the sole member signed to his Bad Boy imprint.

Richard later became a member of his hip-hop fusion collective Diddy-Dirty Money, then left her deal with Combs to focus on a breakout solo project.

“There is no answer to tell you what happened. It just did not work, and it was no girl’s fault. It was a lot to do with this business. It was just bad timing,” Richard told Pop & Hiss about the group in a 2011 interview.

The band had completed material for a reunion album. No word on if there are plans to release anything.

Twitter: @GerrickKennedy