Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former partner, Casandra Ventura, testified on Wednesday in the sex trafficking trial against him, alleging that he raped her towards the end of their over decade-long relationship.
She described a pattern of routine physical abuse that resulted in post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts.
Ventura, known professionally as “Cassie,” continued her testimony, facing further questioning from prosecutors who accuse Combs of leading a criminal sex trafficking ring.
After hours of examination, Ventura, who is currently eight months pregnant, became emotional, recounting “horrible flashbacks” from her time with Combs, which ended in 2018.
She revealed that years later, she confessed to her husband, celebrity fitness trainer Alex Fine, that she had contemplated suicide. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point,” she told the court, adding, “I couldn’t take the pain that I was in anymore.”
She testified that her husband prevented her from taking any action, and this episode led her to seek professional rehabilitation in 2023.
Over two days of testimony, Ventura portrayed Combs as a controlling individual who used his wealth and influence to satisfy his desires.
She provided vivid accounts of coercive sex parties and violent beatings, which form a significant part of the prosecution’s case against Combs, who is accused of using violence and blackmail to manipulate women for many years.
Ventura recounted an incident in 2011 where Combs, after looking through her phone and discovering her relationship with rapper Kid Cudi, flew into a rage and lunged at her with a corkscrew.
“I knew his capabilities, his access to guns,” Ventura later testified. She also claimed that Combs subsequently threatened to release videos of her participating in his sex parties as retaliation.
Describing the so-called “freak-off” sex parties, Ventura stated that she participated because she was “just in love and wanted to make (Combs) happy — to a point I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice.”
She testified that Combs would sometimes urinate on her or instruct sex workers participating in these parties to do so. Ventura, who is 17 years younger than Combs and met him when she was 19, is expected to face intense cross-examination from Combs’s defense lawyers on Thursday, who vehemently deny all charges.
The defense indicated they would emphasize Ventura’s voluntary drug use and erratic behavior.
Ventura testified that she developed an opioid addiction during her relationship with Combs and used drugs like ecstasy, ketamine, and cocaine to cope with the sometimes days-long sex parties.
She described the drugs as having a “dissociative and numbing” effect, “a way to not feel it for what it really was.” She added that opioids “made me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily,” stating, “It was an escape.”
Jurors were shown a graphic hotel surveillance clip from March 2016 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, depicting Combs brutally beating and dragging Ventura down a hallway.
The prosecution played portions of this footage while Ventura was on the stand. When asked why she didn’t fight back or get up, Ventura simply replied that staying curled up on the ground “felt like the safest place to be.”
Following the hotel assault, Ventura was compelled to attend the premiere of her movie “The Perfect Match” days later, visibly bruised on her body and face, as shown in photographs presented to the jury.
Ventura said she wore sunglasses to conceal a black eye. These images contrasted with red carpet photos of the pair appearing harmonious and enjoying each other’s company.
Combs’s defense team maintains that while some of his behavior might be questionable, it does not constitute racketeering and sex trafficking, and he denies all counts.
In late 2023, Ventura filed a civil suit against Combs seeking damages, which was settled for $20 million in less than 24 hours, she testified.
When questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday about her decision to participate in the criminal trial, which required her to publicly relive traumatic details of her life, Ventura paused, began to cry, and stated, “I can’t carry this anymore.
I can’t carry the shame, the guilt… what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. I’m here to do the right thing.”
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