Casandra “Cassie” Ventura recounted the horrific details of the alleged abuse she experienced at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs during an emotional testimony at his sex-trafficking trial.
“He would bash me on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me on the head if I was down,” the “Me & U” singer, who is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, testified from the witness stand inside Manhattan federal court Tuesday.
She claimed Combs, 55, would often fight with her over minuscule disagreements, telling her to “fix [her] face or watch [her] mouth” followed by him allegedly “hitting” her in the face.
“I also felt at certain times … I knew it wasn’t even about me … [I would] make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she further testified.
BACKGRID
Ventura, 38, who appeared in the courtroom wearing a tight brown dress with her baby bump on display, also recalled how the physical assault would be so severe that she would “get knots” in her forehead.
Later in her testimony, the “Don’t Play It Safe” singer broke down in tears further describing how “violent” Combs would allegedly get and how he would “just become a different person.”
“His look would just change over,” she recalled. “The best way to describe it is his eyes just go black. The version that I was in love with is no longer there.”
Ventura also claimed she experienced psychological abuse “every day” because she was always not “knowing who he was going to be when we woke up.”
The singer claimed her famous ex — who is 17 years her senior — introduced her to “Freak-Offs” around the age of 22. She claimed Combs viewed the acts as “voyeurism,” when a person gets turned on by seeing others engage in intimate or sexual behaviors.
She claimed he would “direct” her and her sexual partner, which was often an escort or dancer off of Craigslist, on what they should be doing, adding, “I was in love and I just wanted to make him happy.”
Ventura testified that she was very “sexually inexperienced” when she first met Combs and that he would at times make her “feel crazy for not reciprocating” oral sex.
“I was also still in a relationship with someone else,” she added of the early days of their romance.
The songstress said that if she would not want to participate in sexual acts throughout their relationship, he would become angry, which made her feel “humiliated” and as if that was “all [she] was good for.”
Ventura testified that the longest “Freak-Off” lasted four days — “maybe even more – on and off with the breaks” — and that, in some ways, it became a “job” for her.
She would often be under the influence of drugs like ecstasy, marijuana, ketamine, GHB — also known as the “date rape drug” — or mushrooms during these acts, per her testimony.
“I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or a way to not feel the way it really was, which was emotionless and sex with a stranger who I didn’t want to have sex with,” she said.
The “Just One Nite” singer also mentioned the infamous baby oil Combs liked to use, alleging that he once had a inflatable pool of lube and oil inside of a hotel room. “We poured it all over our bodies and we were glistening,” she further recalled.
Ventura also recounted during her testimony a time when an escort and her then-boyfriend urinated in her mouth, which caused her to “choke.” “It’s just as humiliating [as] if anyone was there to see it. It was disgusting, it was too much,” she said on the stand.
The “Love a Loser” singer noted that Combs once asked her what she calls her grandfather and, from then on, she referred to him as “Pop Pop.” The singer said she thought the request “was weird at the time” and now sees it as “just disrespectful.”
Ventura said she would need time to recuperate from the “Freak-Offs,” which she participated in even while on her period, particularly because of the dehydration and drug use.
She claimed the escorts were usually “paid in the thousands” in cash.
Aside from the sex, Combs allegedly “controlled” all aspects of Ventura’s life, including pressuring her to get breast implants and deterring her from certain hairstyles which he claimed made her look “too Mexican.” He also encouraged her to get her private parts, including her clitoris and nipples, pierced.
Ventura claimed he made her feel unable to leave the relationship — despite her wanting to do so.
“He’s a bit of an incessant caller or he would have staff, security continue to call until you answered,” she added of his alleged obsessive habits and need to assert his control.
Ventura claimed Combs would also “blackmail” her, threatening to put her videos and photos of her sexual encounters “on the internet.”
However, she did note during her testimony that there was “still love” in the relationship at times.
The “Long Way 2 Go” singer — whom prosecutors dubbed “Victim 1” — is a key witness in this case.
Ahead of her court appearance, Reuters reported last week that Combs’ defense team planned to accuse Ventura of domestic violence once she took the stand in attempt to take a stab at the singer’s credibility.
In November 2023, Ventura filed a bombshell civil lawsuit, accusing Combs of rape and abuse throughout their decade-long relationship, which took place from 2007 to 2018.
Her attorneys claimed in the complaint that the “Bad Boy for Life” rapper “was prone to uncontrollable rage, and frequently beat Ms. Ventura savagely.”
Combs quickly settled the suit for an undisclosed amount of money within 24 hours, but claimed at the time that the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing.
However, six months later, CNN released shocking surveillance video taken in 2016 of the Bad Boy Records founder dragging Ventura, his then-girlfriend, across a hotel hallway and physically beating her.
The damning footage corroborated at least the abuse portion of the “King of Hearts” singer’s claims, and forced Combs to issue a public apology.
Ventura’s lawsuit opened the floodgates for dozens of alleged victims to come forward to accuse the “All About the Benjamins” rapper of sexual assault and other crimes.
The mom of three’s claims have also proven useful for the feds’ ongoing case. In September 2023, the authorities charged Combs with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Investigators conducted a months-long probe — which included raids on the disgraced music mogul’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami — and allegedly found evidence of nefarious “Freak-Off” parties, in which illegal sexual activity allegedly occurred.