'Sean 'Diddy' Combs raped me, threatened to release sex videos'. Here's what the rapper's ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura told the court - The Economic Times
Published 12 hours ago• 4 minute read
'Sean 'Diddy' Combs raped me, threatened to release sex videos'. Here's what the rapper's ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura told the court
ET Online
, Cassie recounted how the hip-hop mogul forced his way into her Los Angeles apartment and raped her on the living room floor after she told him the relationship was over.
Cassie said she endured years of beatings and was pressured into participating in hundreds of sex acts with male sex workers—sessions Combs allegedly filmed and controlled, threatening to release the footage if she disobeyed him. “I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s embarrassing, horrible, and disgusting,” she told the court.
Prosecutors showed jurors still images from videos of the so-called “freak-offs.” One juror’s eyes widened while another shook his head.
In 2023, Cassie sued Combs, accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse. The case was quickly settled for $20 million, a figure she publicly revealed for the first time Wednesday. Her case sparked a criminal investigation and prompted similar lawsuits from other women. Combs now faces five federal charges, including sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.
Reuters
Sean "Diddy" Combs drags ex-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura in a still image from a March 5, 2016 surveillance video taken in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel, where a towel-clad Combs threw Ventura to the ground and began to kick her, which was entered as evidence in New York sex trafficking trial.
Combs has denied all allegations and pleaded not guilty. His attorneys argue that while his behavior may have been extreme, all sexual activity was consensual and not criminal. They are set to begin cross-examining Cassie on Thursday.
Cassie, now 38, said the abuse began early in their relationship, which started when she was 19 and Combs was 37. She had signed a 10-year contract with his Bad Boy Records label.
She described multiple violent incidents. In 2007, she said Combs knocked her to the floor of a car. In 2011, after learning she was dating rapper Kid Cudi, he allegedly kicked her and attacked her with a corkscrew. That Christmas, she lied to her mother, claiming it was the first time he had hit her.
In one chilling account, Cassie said Combs once showed her sex tapes mid-flight—videos she believed had been destroyed. “I just felt trapped,” she said.
Cassie also testified that she saw Combs violently assault her friends, including hitting one with a hammer and pulling another off a balcony ledge.
In 2016, just days after he beat and kicked her in a hotel following a freak-off—an incident captured on security footage—Cassie attended a red carpet event with him. She said she covered bruises with makeup and changed clothes in a theater popcorn closet to conceal the injuries. That footage was played in court along with photos of the couple at the event. Combs later apologized when the footage leaked.
In another incident in 2013, while preparing to attend Drake’s music festival, Cassie said Combs fought with her friends and threw her into a bed frame, causing a gash above her eye. His security reportedly took her to a plastic surgeon for stitches. She later sent Combs a photo of her injuries, to which he replied: “You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far.”
By 2018, Cassie said she was suffering from PTSD, experiencing blackouts and sleepwalking. In 2023, while filming a music video, she had what she called a breakdown. She told her husband she felt like she couldn’t go on and attempted to walk into traffic. He stopped her, and shortly afterward, she entered rehab and began trauma therapy.
Explaining why she chose to testify, she said: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt.”
Combs, 55, has been in jail since September and faces a minimum of 15 years if convicted. His trial is expected to last two months. Several more women are scheduled to testify in the coming weeks.
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