- Sean “Diddy” Combs is on trial in a federal court in Manhattan
- The music mogul pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution
- Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura is testifying against him
Casandra “Cassie” Ventura testified that she hated the orchestrated sex performances Sean “Diddy” Combs made her take part in, saying that she took drugs to disassociate from the activity.
During her 11-year relationship with the rap mogul, Ventura alleges that she was forced to have sex with male escorts for Combs’ pleasure during so-called “Freak Offs.” To help her get through these sometimes days-long encounters, she says she took the drug ketamine, a widely used anesthetic that has hallucinogenic properties.
Calling it her preferred drug, she testified that ketamine “took me out of the Freak Off,” saying, “You go into a K-hole and disassociate.”
On Tuesday, May 13, she told the jury how Combs allegedly forced her to take part in what she described as degrading acts, including having Combs and sometimes male escorts urinating on her.
But on Wednesday, May 14, she told the jury that she found having to kiss male escorts particularly objectionable.
“I was really against kissing,” she testified. “Too intimate but still happened anyway. [Combs] requested it so I did it.”
While she admitted that “made me squeamish,” on “different occasions I still kissed them.”
Married to personal trainer Alex Fine and pregnant with their third child, the former model is testifying about how her powerful ex-boyfriend of 11 years allegedly abused her physically and emotionally and, as his protege, came to control all aspects of her life.
Ventura, who met Combs when she was a 19-year-old budding singer, alleges that Combs filmed the Freak Offs and threatened to use the videos as blackmail that would derail her music career.
Jurors were shown a now-infamous video of Combs hitting and kicking Ventura as she lay curled on the floor of an elevator bank at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016 and then dragging her down the hallway.
She testified that she had fled their hotel room in between a Freak Off session with a male escort.
After Combs allegedly punched her in the eye, she ran out of the room, barefoot, she testified. “At that point, all I could think about was getting out of there safely,” she said.
The video shows her trying to get away before Combs, wearing nothing but a white towel around his middle, chased her down.
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In her opening statements, U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told jurors how Combs has allegedly used his influence in the music business to drug women and force them to take part in the Freak Offs.
Cassie Alleges Diddy Called Sex Tapes ‘Blackmail Materials’ — and She Lived in Fear He’d Release Them
In her opening statement, Combs’ defense attorney Teny Geragos said that any sex between her client and Ventura was consensual, as was the fact that she stayed with him for more than a decade.
Combs could face up to life in prison if he is convicted on all counts. Since his 2024 arrest, he has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Complex in Brooklyn.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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