Cassie Ventura, the ex-girlfriend of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs whose 2023 lawsuit led to a criminal investigation that resulted in Combs facing five federal charges, broke into tears on Tuesday (May 13), on the stand as the government’s star witness.
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While on the stand, Cassie told the court that Diddy had her locked into a ten-album deal with Bad Boy Records, during which time “hundreds” of tracks were recorded – but only one album and one mixtape were ever officially released.
“When I signed the contract, I was 19, it was a 10-album deal, released an album later that year in 2006 in August,” she said.
Diddy prioritized Cassie’s participation in wild sex parties – which he called freak offs – over developing her music career, she testified.
The “freak offs” became her job “and there was no space to do anything else.”
“Staying out for days on end, taking drugs and drinking, having sex with a stranger,” she told the court.
“They would be 36, 48, 72 hours, the longest one was four days.”
Cassie said she and Diddy first kissed in a bathroom at the MTV Video Music Awards. She was 21 at the time and recalled telling a friend about the unusual encounter.
“I was confused, I was a new artist that didn’t know the lay of the land and things like that,” she said in court. “I wasn’t used to an executive or anyone being that forward that way with me, in a more than friends way, a sexual way, a romantic way. I remember running out and back to my hotel and telling someone about it.”
The pair ran into one another a handful of times at Trump Hotel in Manhattan and began developing a personal relationship.
“He was a larger-than-life musician, a fan of music, didn’t know too much about him personally,” she told jurors.
While on the stand, Cassie shared her first sexual encounter with Diddy, saying that drugs became a part of their repertoire from day one.
“I was drinking wine, then started to take drugs, a blue dolphin ecstasy pill,” she said of the encounter, which she testified took place on a boat in Miami. “Sean gave it to me; I had never taken it before. I was just out of it, laughing, didn’t know what it was until a little bit later.”
Though they began dating soon after the Miami incident, Cassie said they went “many years” without making it public because Diddy was already in a relationship with Kim Porter and didn’t want his image to take a hit.
“He just didn’t want it to look bad, but also knew it was because of his children and personal things like his family,” Cassie said.
Cassie also testified that Sean would make surprise visits to one of her many residences in California.
“It was a stomach-in-knots moment, didn’t know what was going to come of the visit,” she told the court.
According to Cassie, Combs was prone to wild mood swings and her inability to predict his temperament at any given time caused a great deal of anxiety.
“Make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I would get hit in the face,” she said in court. “He would say, ‘Watch your mouth.’”
The freak offs started when Cassie was 22, she told the court.
“At some point I felt I didn’t have much of a choice, I didn’t know what ‘No’ could turn into,” she said.”I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or not want to be with me at all.”
Cassie said by that point Diddy controlled her “career, sex, everything.”
Eventually, she said Diddy required her to have sex with a male escort while he watched.
“I was 22 at the time, my stomach churned, didn’t have a concept of how that would be a turn on but I accepted the responsibility… I was confused, nervous, but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy.”
Cassie said that she participated for the pleasure of Combs, whether she enjoyed the freak offs or not.
“It wasn’t something that I wanted to be doing especially as regularly as it became,” she said. “But again, I was in love and wanted to make him happy. At some point, I felt I didn’t have much of a choice.”
This is a developing story.