Update: In her testimony against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday, Cassie testified that she settled her 2023 lawsuit against Combs for the previously undisclosed sum of $20 million. The suit made headlines when the rap mogul settled with her the next day.
It was the first of several lawsuits against the Bad Boy records founder, who is now on trial for rape, sex trafficking and numerous other felonies.
Cassie explained why she was testifying at the trial despite the settlement. “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt,” according to the Associated Press.
She also testified that she underwent rehab and trauma therapy after nearly walking into traffic to try to end her life at one point.
She also stated that when she tried to end her 10-year relationship with Combs in 2018, he forced his way into her apartment and raped her. She added that she “didn’t hate him,” however. “We’d been together for over 10 years. You just don’t turn feelings off.”
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Cassie’s testimony in the sex trafficking trial against her former boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, continued Wednesday with the R&B singer revealing that she developed an opioid addiction from Combs’ hours- and days-long sex parties.
Cassie, whose full legal name is Cassandra Ventura, first took to the witness stand at the trial’s Manhattan federal courthouse Tuesday. She returned to it Wednesday morning and afternoon, and spoke candidly about the dehumanizing effects that her allegedly coerced involvement in Combs’ sex parties, referred to as “freak offs,” had on her.
In order to recover from the sometimes days-long parties, in which she says she had sex with male escorts while Combs watched and recorded, Cassie said she relied on IV fluids, massages and opioids. Her reliance on the latter eventually developed into an addiction. “Opioids make me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily,” she explained, according to the Associated Press.
The R&B singer added that she frequently developed urinary tract infections from Combs’ freak offs, which she said began to feel like a job to her. After each, Cassie confessed that she felt “just really empty and I felt just gross.” Combs allegedly threatened multiple times to release his recordings of the freak offs she’d been involved in, which made refusing his demands feel impossible.
“I feared for my career. I feared for my family,” she said Wednesday. “It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone.”
In addition to having sex with the parties’ male escorts, Cassie revealed that she was often enlisted to recruit them herself in Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. She identified at least 13 sex workers from a binder of photos that was presented to her by the trial’s prosecution. Cassie said one of the escorts in question went by the moniker “The Punisher.”
At other points on Wednesday, Cassie, who filed a lawsuit against Combs in 2023 alleging years of physical abuse, rape and sex trafficking that was settled within hours, further detailed the abuse she suffered at Combs’ hands. She claimed that he threw a vase of flowers at her during a 2016 assault at a hotel, and that she once told him, “You treat me like Ike,” in reference to Ike Turner, who is described in Tina Turner’s autobiography as an abusive partner.
Photos were shown in court of Cassie standing with Combs at a 2016 movie premiere, in which bruises on her body were clearly visible. She also testified to having been pressured by Combs to go to sex clubs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and to having been pushed by him into a bed frame in 2013. The latter incident allegedly left Cassie with a “significant gash” over her left eye that was ultimately covered up by a plastic surgeon Combs’ security team took her to see.
On a commercial flight back from France to the U.S., Cassie additionally claimed that Combs began playing a recording of her at a freak off while others were around them. Combs’ threats to release that video and others like it in order to “embarrass” her left Cassie feeling “trapped” by the disgraced music mogul.
Cassie is one of a total four accusers expected to testify against Combs throughout his trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson’s questioning of Cassie is expected to conclude by the end of the day Wednesday, at which point the R&B singer will then face cross examination from Combs’ defense.
One of his lawyers, Teny Geragos, told Judge Arun Subramanian on Wednesday that the prosecution’s approach to Cassie’s testimony had “gone differently than we expected,” and noted that Combs’ defense team would consequently be adjusting their strategy.
If convicted, Combs, 55, is facing anything between a 15-year and lifetime prison sentence. He is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Combs’ attorneys maintain that, while he may be guilty of domestic violence against past partners like Cassie, all of the sexual activities he is on trial for were conducted between consenting adults.
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