Cassie Ventura, the former partner of Sean “Diddy” Combs, gave harrowing testimony on Wednesday in a New York City federal court, outlining how numerous individuals in Combs’ inner circle actively prevented her from leaving during repeated episodes of abuse throughout their long-term relationship.
Speaking during Combs’ ongoing trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Ventura revealed that members of his security team, personal assistants, his driver, and her former music manager, James Cruz, all played roles in returning her to Combs after violent incidents.
She also recounted the first time he physically assaulted her, noting that it occurred soon after they began dating in 2007.
“He hit me in the side of my head and I fell to the floor of the car,” she said. She would have been 21 at the time, and Combs was 38.
According to Yahoo:
Combs’ driver and guard were also present another time Combs attacked her in a vehicle in 2009. Ventura said he attacked her for the whole 10-minute car ride. Combs’ guards caught up to her when she tried to escape the beating, and brought her back to him.
“I had never experienced anything like that, when I was really badly beaten,” she said.
Afterward, Combs’ team set her up in the London Hotel in Los Angeles to hide her until her wounds healed. She was forbidden from seeing anyone except her stylist, she testified, and told to keep her face covered.
She described her own face when she finally looked in the mirror, as having “just knots and bleeding, swollen everything. I looked horrible.”
Ventura added that after one of the beatings, she wanted to go home but knew “it wouldn’t be safe” for her mother because of Combs’ “capabilities, his access to guns, the threats he made prior to that.” That’s why she kept the abuse a secret from her mom at the time.
Per the New York Times, she said,
“I didn’t tell my mom the truth because I was ashamed… I also didn’t want to put my mother in danger for knowing anything of that magnitude.”
During another beating incident in 2015 at a Las Vegas hotel where Combs was hosting a party in another room, Ventura said he
“punched me, kicked me… I was trying to run away and I made it into the bathroom.”
Combs’ management team and security witnessed and ended the altercation. Ventura said one guard started to cry when he saw the “black eyes” and “golf-ball sized knots” on her forehead, CNN reports. No other intervention was offered, however.
Combs’ son was at his house at the same time Ventura was instructed to stay there to hide her wounds after that incident, prompting Combs to tell Ventura to put on more makeup to hide her injuries from him.
More details about the pair’s relationship emerged throughout Ventura’s testimony, which began on Tuesday. She detailed Combs’ intensity about the “freak-off” orgies she claims he forced her to participate in.
Ventura said she suffered numerous UTIs from the frequent sex performances, which were carried out with escorts at Combs’ behest. She also allegedly developed an opiate addiction from drugs Combs supplied her.
The singer testified that she was unable to finish celebrating her 29th birthday at a club because Combs kept insisting they leave the venue to have another “freak-off.”
She also told the courts that Combs would blackmail her with footage from the sexual encounters, during which he would have her have sex with others while he watched and directed.
The tapes presumably featured some of Combs’ humiliating requests. A male escort the then-couple hired testified on Monday that Combs demanded he urinate in Ventura’s mouth, for example.
Still photos of some of those encounters were shown to jurors on screens only they and Ventura could see on Wednesday. Reports from inside say jurors showed limited reaction, though one female juror let out a “deep breath” and placed a hand to her chest.
Ventura said that Combs threatened to release two tapes in particular when she began dating rapper Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi). He also hired help to “hurt” them both physically out of jealous retaliation, she added.
She first publicly accused Combs of threatening Mescudi and having his car blown up when she sued Combs for abuse in 2023. Combs quickly settled that lawsuit within a day for a previously undisclosed amount, though he admitted no wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Ventura revealed for the first time that she received $20 million to settle, CNN reports. “I wanted to be compensated for the time, the pain, the many many years of having to fix my life,” she said.
“There was way more than ‘freak-offs,’” she explained. “There was abuse, there was many things that happened over our relationship.”
Another revelation from Ventura’s Wednesday testimony was her admission that she occasionally initiated physical fights with Combs.
That point may have pre-empted Combs’ defense team, who stated earlier in the trial that they would argue the couple was “mutually” violent.
Ventura has been calm and collected throughout her testimony, which analysts say may cause Combs’ defense to rethink their strategy.
Combs’ team will be able to cross examine Ventura on Thursday, as she nears the end of what was expected to be a four-day appearance.
