WARNING: This story may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
R&B singer Cassie returned to the witness stand on Wednesday after a day spent recounting details of life with hip-hop music mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs and the violence she allegedly endured during their relationship.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson says she’ll be questioning Cassie about her 10-year relationship with Combs for about half the day today, before defence lawyers begin their cross-examination.
During her first day of testimony at Combs’s sex trafficking trial in New York on Tuesday, Cassie described being pressured into degrading sexual encounters with paid sex workers.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force women into drugged-up sex parties he called “freak-offs.”
His lawyers argue that, although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering. They contend all sexual acts were consensual.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
WARNING: Video contains disturbing details | Cassie Ventura, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s ex-girlfriend, testified at length at the music mogul’s sex-trafficking trial in New York about the alleged abuse she suffered, including graphic details of being coerced into ‘freak-off’ sex parties.
Cassie, now 38, met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and just at the start of a career as a singer, model and actor.
She had a hit song, Me & U, in 2006 off an album released by Combs’s Bad Boy Records.
Combs, who was 37 when they met, nurtured her career early on and also became her boyfriend for a decade. Cassie left Combs’s record label in 2019 and then sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse.
She told jurors during her testimony on Tuesday that there were loving moments during their relationship, but that Combs was always controlling and often violent.
Cassie said she was 22 when Combs first asked her to do a “freak-off,” with the first one occurring in his Los Angeles home with a male stripper that left her feeling dirty and confused — but relieved that Combs was happy.
“It was his fantasy,” she said. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it.”
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She also recounted being beaten numerous times by Combs when she did things that displeased him — like smiling at him the wrong way.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she said.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, accused Combs of gaining her submission by threatening to publicly release videos of her with male sex workers.
Combs’s attorneys have acknowledged their client could be violent, but maintain the sexual acts were consensual.
They say nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering, the charges that he faces. Lawyers for Combs have yet to cross-examine Cassie.
The trial is expected to last about two months.
The sex trafficking trial of music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs got underway in New York, with prosecutors painting him as a serial predator with unlimited resources. Combs’s defence acknowledged he could be violent but insisted his relationships with women were consensual.
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
