An emotional Cassie Ventura ended her bombshell testimony in tears and said she would give back her $20 million settlement with Sean “Diddy” Combs if it meant she never had to take part in his alleged “freak offs.”
Ventura sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of physical and sexual abuse, including rape, during their relationship, with the music mogul settling her lawsuit within 24 hours after it was filed. But as her cross-examination reached its conclusion, the tearful Ventura said: “I’d give that money back if I never had to have ‘freak offs.”
“If I never had to have ‘freak offs,’ I would have had agency and autonomy. And I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get it back,” she added.
She grabbed tissues to pat her tear-stained cheeks when she was asked about being beaten by Diddy during the “freak offs.”
Being beaten made her feel “worthless, felt like dirt, like I meant nothing, absolutely nothing,” she explained.
Yet, she was too fearful to refuse to participate in the painful encounters because she “worried for my safety, my career, but also I was in love with him so I worried he wouldn’t want to be with me anymore.”
Ventura said repeatedly on the stand that she felt like participating in “freak offs” was her job. She described herself as a “sex worker,” but the judge said to strike that.
She denied that suing Combs was motivated by financial reasons.
Combs has denied all charges.
On the final of Ventura’s’s four days on the stand, the jury also heard:
- A recording of a distressed Ventura screaming at a friend who said he had seen a video of her performing sex acts. Ventura acknowledged in her testimony that Combs then made efforts to keep the video private.
- The details of treatment she received in 2023. The singer denied getting treatment for sex addiction, sexual compulsion and love addition, but did say she had neurofeedback therapy to help cope with her experiences.
- Ventura said she doesn’t hate Combs, despite accusing him of rape. The pair even continued to exchange warm messages after she married Alex Fine.
- She also acknowledged having consensual sex weeks after Combs’ alleged rape.
Much of the day also focussed on text messages between Combs and ventura.
In particular, she was asked about texts sent in 2016 in the aftermath of Diddy’s attack on her in an L.A. hotel, footage of which was shared by CNN last year.
“I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child,” she told Diddy after the attack.
Ventura also read a text message aloud describing Diddy as being out of control from drugs and alcohol that day.
She testified earlier this week that the video captured her trying to flee from a “freak off.”
In other texts sent days after the hotel attack, Diddy and Ventura expressed love for each other as they tried to move on from the incident. Ventura told Combs in one message:“We need a different vibe from Friday.”
Combs also allegedly took Ventura’s’s phone from her multiple times, including after learning she was dating an unnamed football player, and when he suspected she had danced with singer Chris Brown during breaks in their decade-long relationship.
“Do you remember when [Diddy] thought you were dancing with Chris Brown?” defense lawyer Anna Estevao asked Ventura Friday.
“I do but I was not … I wasn’t dancing with Chris Brown,” she replied.
Ventura testified that she ended her relationship with Combs permanently in August 2018 after finding a photo of him with another woman named Gina whom he had been seeing during the final years of their decade-long relationship.
“I just don’t trust anymore,” Ventura said in a text message read in court. “That last shot put the nail in the coffin.”
“Can I not get a chance to make things right?” Combs responded. “It seems like you’re blaming everything on me. I haven’t taken care of you?”
“You took care of me materialistically, not where I needed it,” Ventura replied. “I needed you to love me and put me first.”
She added, “I promised myself I wouldn’t be with you anymore if you did that to me again.” She noted: “You lied to me” and “she never went away.”
The courtroom also heard a 2014 audio clip of Ventura threatening to kill a man who claimed he saw a sexually explicit video of her.
“I will kill you if you don’t show me right now,” Ventura yelled in the recording after the man refused to provide further details on the alleged tape. “I will cut you up and put you in the f****** dirt right now.”
“Put that s*** up right now,” she continued. “I’m tired of you talking s*** right now. It’s not going to be blood on my hands; someone else is going to do it.”
Assistant United States Attorney Emily Johnson asked Ventura what kind of world Diddy opened up to her.
“A world of chaos,” she replied.
