The Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking trial reached a dramatic peak on Wednesday afternoon as his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura broke down in tears during her final testimony.
The last stretch of her questioning by the prosecution focused on the latter part of her 11-year relationship with Combs, which Ventura alleges was fraught with physical and psychological abuse.
She detailed a night she shared with Combs after they broke up in 2018, when the two had a cordial dinner in Malibu to find “closure.” At the time, Ventura was in a romantic relationship with her now husband, Alex Fine. Ventura described Combs’ demeanor in Malibu as “romantic,” “playful” and “nice,” saying they were “laughing” throughout the dinner. But after dinner, Combs drove Ventura back to her apartment in Hollywood and turned aggressive.
“He raped me in my living room,” Ventura said softly. “I remember crying, saying no, but it was very fast.”
Ventura said Combs’ eyes went “black” as he continued raping her as she cried. She said he ejaculated inside of her while she yelled “no,” and then he got up and left.
Federal prosecutor Emily Johnson asked Ventura whether she had sex with Combs after the alleged rape, and she said yes, that she had chosen to sleep with Combs after a friend’s birthday, when they were both “happy.” Explaining why she would willingly have sex with Combs after he allegedly raped her, Ventura said, “We had been together for over 10 years. You don’t just turn feelings off that way.”
The last time Ventura and Combs were in the same room together was in 2018, at Combs’ longtime ex Kim Porter’s funeral.
Reaching the end of her testimony, Ventura was asked about her life in 2023, when she was living with her husband and two children. (Ventura has a third child on the way, as she is visibly pregnant on the witness stand.) Ventura said she began “spinning out” in February 2023, adding, “I didn’t want to be alive anymore.”
One night, Ventura was having “horrible PTSD flashbacks” and told her husband, as their kids were sleeping, that he “could do it” without her. “I tried to walk out the front door into traffic, and my husband would not let me,” Ventura said as she broke into tears and reached for tissues.
Ventura went to trauma therapy and rehab for drug addiction, and when she completed the program, she began writing a book about her experiences with the help of her mom. She said she wrote the book because she wanted Combs to read it and “understand” the “pain he put me through” since she was 22 years old, when Combs first allegedly subjected her to his drug-fueled sex fantasies known as “freak-offs.”
Ventura said she had her attorney send the book to Combs’ team, but she heard back that “it wasn’t taken seriously.” “I wanted to be compensated for the many, many years,” said Ventura, “and the pain.”
So, in November 2023, Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of rape and years of physical abuse. Combs continues to deny those allegations. The lawsuit was settled 24 hours after Ventura filed it, and in court Wednesday, she revealed that she received $20 million from Combs and his companies.
When asked why she is testifying against Combs in the federal trial, where he faces a potential life sentence on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, Ventura said, “I’m here to do the right thing. I can’t carry this anymore … the shame, the guilt.”
From Variety US