Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is being sued by his former longtime girlfriend, Cassie, in what she says was a relationship steeped in violent beatings, drugs, sex abuse, and sex trafficking.
Diddy and Cassie dated for 10 years but broke up in 2018. Neither of them addressed the reason for the breakup, but Diddy seemed to have hinted at the break up in his R&B single “Gotta Move On” this year.
However, the R&B singer claims that her life was living hell with Diddy despite the perception made to the public. On Thursday, Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura) filed a lawsuit in the South District of New York against Diddy, Bad Boy Entertainment, Epic Records, Combs Enterprises, and Doe Corps for unspecified damages.
According to a bombshell report by the New York Times, Cassie claimed that she was subject to physical and sexual violence and was also coerced into unlawful acts by Diddy including “raped her in her own home after she tried to leave him, often punched, beat, kicked and stomped on Ms. Ventura, resulting in bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding; blew up Kid Cudi’s car after he learned that he was romantically interested in Ms. Ventura; Forced Ms. Ventura to engage in sex acts with male sex workers while masturbating and filming the encounters; ran out of his apartment with a firearm in pursuit of a rival industry executive whom he learned was nearby; demanded that Ms. Ventura carry his firearm in her purse just to make her uncomfortable and demonstrate how dangerous he is; and introduced Ms. Ventura to a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse and required her to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his addictions.”
Diddy is a billionaire and one of hip hop’s most successful producers, whom Cassie said she met at 19 years old in 2005.
However, shortly after they began a relationship, she said he was abusive, gave her drugs to use, beat her, and forced her to have sex with male workers throughout the relationship.
Diddy is accused of beating Cassie, acts she claims were witnessed by his staff and employees of Bad Boy Entertainment and related businesses. However, many were afraid of him.
After the gruesome beatings, she claims that Diddy would immediately attempt to hide her- sending her to hotels to recuperate where her family can’t see or find her. He would “showered her with gifts following incidents of physical violence, a typical pattern of behavior by serial abusers,” part of the lengthy lawsuit said.
She also alleged that the physical assaults were coupled with mental and psychological abuse as Diddy “frequently reminded Ms. Ventura of his ability to cause serious harm as he made her carry his gun in her purse and he also disclosed his plans to blow up Kid Cudi’s car after the rapper showed romantic interest in her.
She also alleged that over the years, he physically and sexually assaulted her “again and again” as she tried to escape his tight hold over her life.
“Every time she hid, Mr. Combs’s vast network of corporations and affiliated entities found her, and those who worked for Mr. Combs’s companies implored her to return to him. Many went as far as to explicitly state that her failure to return to Mr. Combs would hinder her success in the entertainment industry.
She also alleges that in 2018, Diddy raped her after she attempted to break off the relationship.
“When she believed that she had finally separated from her longtime abuser, she joined Mr. Combs for a dinner, after which he forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said “no” and tried to push him away.”
She also alleged that Diddy was so controlling that he had her confidential medical records sent to his email address.
The lawsuit claims Cassie began “experiencing memory loss potentially due to excessive drug use and/or head injuries caused by Mr. Combs’s beatings,” as described in MRI results, which were sent directly to Diddy. The singer said she took large amounts of drugs, including ecstasy and Ketamine.
Diddy is alleged to have “exerted ownership” over Cassie by making his staff take her to the doctor’s appointments.
She also claimed that Diddy’s life was “pervaded” with violence, which she witnessed including on one occasion when she and Diddy “were using drugs together in his home, one of his security staff barged in and announced that Suge Knight a longtime rival of Mr. Combs- was spotted at Mel’s Drive-In Diner in Los Angeles. Mr. Combs began to get dressed, retrieved multiple guns from a safe, and ran out of his home to where he believed Mr. Knight was dining. Ms. Ventura became terrified and began to cry.”
She also claimed that Diddy was responsible for blowing up Kid Cudi’s car in Paris in 2012.
“Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened. Around that time, Kid Cud’s car exploded in his driveway.”
Many of the violent beatings she experienced occurred after she spoke with other music managers.
In 2009, she alleged that Diddy found out she spoke to another music manager at a party in Los Angeles, and he became “enraged” and pulled her out of the club where the party was taking place.
“In the car leaving the club, Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura pushing her into a corner of the vehicle and stomping her face. Mr. Combs staff, Roger Bonds, tried to stop the beating but was unable to de-escalate the situation. When the car arrived Ms. Ventura attempted to run away, but Mr. Combs followed her and proceeded to again kick her in the face. Ms. Ventura was bleeding profusely, and was ushered into Mr. Comb’s home where she began to throw up from the violent assault,” the lawsuit read.
Despite the beatings and unsuccessful attempts to escape, she said she was afraid to report him to the police as that “would merely give Mr. Combs another excuse to hurt her.”
Again, in 2015, she spoke to a popular music manager at an after-party in a hotel suite in Las Vegas, and again, Diddy beat her severely.
“She ran from corner to corner of the room, trying to avoid Mr. Combs beating and kicking. When she tried to lock herself in the bathroom, he pushed through and punched and kicked her while she curled up under the toilet. Her screams were drowned out by the loud music playing in the outside area of the hotel suite…Ms. Ventura had two black eyes, a burst lip, and a huge welt on her forehead”.
Cassie also described events called “freak offs” by Diddy, where he coerced her to have sex with male sex workers while he watched, masturbated, and made videos.
These events took place across many cities in the U.S. and at Diddy’s house, where she took drugs to “disassociate” from the encounters.
During one of the “freak offs” in 2016, she attempted to leave a hotel while Diddy slept, but he woke up and followed her and physically assaulted her with glass vases and various objects and also gave her a black eye. She alleges that Diddy paid the hotel $50,000 to give him the footage caught on hotel cameras.
In the meantime, the New York Times reported that Diddy’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, claims that Cassie is trying to shake down the label boss and that Cassie asked that he pay $30 million not to reveal the details of their relationship in a book.
“Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday,” the attorney said.
Cassie’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, on the other hand, responded that the parties had discussions without prejudice before the lawsuit was filed and that Diddy offered her “eight figures” to prevent the lawsuit, but she rejected it.
