Cassie took the stand during ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial, testifying about their relationship and her allegations against him.
The singer, 38, began her testimony on Tuesday, May 13, by describing her relationship with Diddy, 55, claiming that it was marked by violence. “There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse,” she told the court. “Dragging, different things of that nature.”
After the prosecution asked Cassie how often Diddy physically assaulted her, she replied, “Too frequently.”
When asked by prosecutors to explain what a freak off was, Cassie said “it basically entails the hiring of an escort and setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean.” She went on to claim Diddy would “actually direct us on what we were doing,” adding, “Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much.”
She noted that freak offs — which she first learned about at age 22 — made her feel “nervousness and confusion,” but she engaged in them to please Diddy because she “loved him very much.” Cassie also told the court that her ex “controlled a lot of my life,” claiming he videotaped her during sexual encounters. She feared he would use these videos for “blackmail,” adding, “He had many resources to do that. … It was always in the back of my mind that I would somehow be hurt by him.”
As her testimony continued, Cassie recalled the earliest days of her relationship with Diddy, whom she met around 2005 when she was 19. She soon signed a 10-album record deal with his label, Bad Boy.
“I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time,” she said. “He was just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have, you know, my career in his hands.”
Cassie claimed that Diddy kissed her for the first time at her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, at which point he was her boss but they were not yet dating. She told the court that she cried and ran away after the kiss because she wasn’t used to an employer acting in that way.
After the party, Cassie said Diddy began inviting her to meetings in hotel rooms, where she believed they would discuss her career. Instead, Diddy allegedly “introduced” her to oral sex and “made me feel crazy for not reciprocating” after he performed it on her for the first time. She added she was “completely sexually inexperienced” at the time and dating someone else.
According to Cassie, their romantic relationship began a fews months after she turned 21, during a trip to Miami where Diddy allegedly gave her a “blue dolphin” ecstasy pill. At this point, she believed they were monogamous, saying she felt it was her “first real adult” relationship.
Cassie went on to claim that Diddy’s moods were extreme, alleging that he would tell her she was being a “brat” and then abuse her. “Make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she alleged. If she didn’t answer his phone calls during this period, he would allegedly call her “incessantly” or have one of his assistants or security guards track her down.
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She eventually moved to Los Angeles where she had her own apartment, but she noted that Diddy lived “three minutes away” from her. She described visits from Diddy as a “stomach-in-knots moment” because she would never know his mood.
During the first part of her testimony, Cassie also discussed her music career, noting that only one album from her 10-album deal was ever released despite her recording “hundreds” of songs. According to her, the decision not to release this music was Diddy’s.
“The freak offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Cassie continued, alleging that these parties could last anywhere from 36 hours to four days and involved having sex with “strangers” while using drugs and alcohol. With breaks, she claimed, freak offs could last even longer, and she’d then need additional time to recover from dehydration, sleep deprivation and drug use.
Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura) and Diddy dated on and off from 2007 to 2018. Five years later, Cassie named the now-disgraced music mogul in a November 2023 lawsuit and accused him of repeated physical abuse and sexual assault for nearly a decade. Diddy vehemently denied the allegations before settling the case out of court within a day.
“Just so we’re clear, a decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Diddy’s attorney Ben Brafman said in a statement shared with Us. “Mr. Combs’ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms. Ventura the best.”
Diddy was arrested one year later on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He denied all allegations and pleaded not guilty.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Us Weekly in September 2024. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”
Before his arrest, Diddy had been indicted by a grand jury, which also cited a resurfaced video published by CNN of the rapper allegedly choking and kicking Cassie outside a hotel room in 2016.
