[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Cassie Ventura has taken the stand in Diddy’s New York trial.
It’s day two of the disgraced rapper’s sex trafficking trial and his former girlfriend, who set his entire downfall in motion with her 2023 lawsuit, is giving her testimony.
Physical Abuse
On Tuesday, Cassie was questioned about her relationship with the Bad Boy Records founder by prosecutor Emily Johnson. According to CNN, she confirmed she was in a relationship with Diddy “for a little over 10 years” before detailing arguments and instances of “physical abuse” she suffered at his hand:
“He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down.”
She claimed the physical abuse occurred “too frequently,” and often resulted in “bruises all over [her] body.”
“Freak-offs”
While on the stand, an image from the shocking footage of Diddy brutally beating Cassie at the InterContinental Hotel in LA in 2016 was shown, and the 38-year-old claimed it happened after “an encounter that we called a ‘Freak Off.’” Providing details of how she was initially convinced to participate in “freak-offs,” Cassie explained:
“Within the first year of our relationship, he proposed this idea, this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism where he would watch me be in intercourse with a third party, specifically with another man.”
She claimed the encounter would entail “hiring an escort and setting up this experience, so that [she] could perform for Sean.” She couldn’t remember exactly from where the name “freak off” originated, but told the court it eventually became a “job” for her, occupying much of her time:
“Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much, so I knew if it was something he wanted me to do, I had the contacts to set it up and get a hotel room and all of that, but in the beginning, Sean set it up. He was in charge.”
She would also have to spend a large amount of her time recovering from the “freak-offs.”
“There was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again”
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Cassie went on to claim she felt she couldn’t refuse to participate in “freak-offs” as she didn’t want to disappoint him:
“I also felt a sense of responsibility. It was him sharing something like that with me. I was confused, nervous but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy.”
She continued:
“I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing especially as regularly as it became, but again, I was just in love and wanted to make him happy.”
Eventually, her involvement became something she felt she couldn’t turn down out of fear of how Diddy would react:
“It got to a point where I just didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could be or what ‘no’ could turn into.”
According to Cassie, the now-55-year-old controlled much of her life:
“Whether it was career, sex, everything. And I didn’t have much say, I was super young, I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or not want to be with me at all.”
Elsewhere in her testimony, Cassie claimed their relationship started on her 21st birthday in 2007 when he kissed her in a bathroom — a move that left her feeling “confused.” She told the court did not want to kiss Diddy at the time. She also claimed that when they did become an item, she initially believed they were monogamous despite his public relationship with Kim Porter.
Blackmail
Cassie claimed while on the stand that she kept several broken laptops, iPads, and cell phones as she didn’t know exactly what sort of content was on them and feared recordings and other “blackmail materials” Diddy kept would become public:
“Sean is a really polarizing person, also very charming so it’s hard to be able to decide in that moment like what you need when he’s telling you what he wants.”
This is a developing story as Cassie is currently on the stand.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources
For more information on violence against women, go to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/resources-for-survivors
[Images via Adriana M. Barraza/Andres Otero/WENN]
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