Casandra “Cassie” Ventura spoke publicly for the first time about the alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse she endured during her decade-long relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs, going into painstaking detail about the drug-fueled “freak-offs” that have become synonymous with the accusations against Combs.
The 38-year-old R&B singer, model, and actress took the stand on Tuesday in the first week of Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial. The hip-hop mogul has pleaded not guilty to the five charges against him.
Tuesday marked the first time the former celebrity couple have seen each other in person since their 2018 breakup. Supported in court by her husband, Alex Fine, her brother, and other loved ones, a composed Ventura testified for the majority of the day about the alleged ritualistic and “choreographed” sexual encounters that she “hated” but felt had no choice but to comply.
Ventura told jurors that after her first freak-off at age 22 — a time that she described herself as “naive” and “enamored” with her label boss Combs — the days-long, “humiliating” sexual encounters with Combs and male escorts occurred almost weekly. Ventura testified the male escorts were paid thousands of dollars in cash, and their payment was contingent on the completion of their performance during the sexual encounter.
She alleged that Combs controlled nearly every aspect of her daily life and that she was fearful of making him angry, which could result in physical violence. When it came to testifying about participating in freak-offs, Ventura — who is more than eight months pregnant with her third child — briefly became overwhelmed with emotion and cried when trying to explain why she continued to engage in freak-offs and the overall toll it took on her.
Ventura is expected to testify for a second day on Wednesday about her decade-long “abusive” relationship with Combs. Prosecutors indicated they would be asking further questions about the InterContinental Hotel attack from March 2016 that was caught on surveillance video, as well as introducing photo evidence related to videotaped freak-offs. Following direct examination, Combs’ all-star defense team plans to question Ventura well into Thursday.
Here are seven of the biggest takeaways from Ventura’s testimony.
1. Inside the Alleged “Freak-Offs”
Ventura walked jurors through every step of the highly ritualistic “freak-offs” that she claimed Combs orchestrated and controlled. Although the locations varied, Ventura testified, the setup was usually similar: the hotel suites and personal bedrooms were stocked with bottles of baby oil, lubricant, and strong-smelling mood candles. In later years, Ventura said the lighting was switched to LED-colored lights used in recording studios.
The sexual encounters with male escorts followed a pattern, Ventura said, with the pair rubbing baby oil on each other until they were “glistening.” Touching and massaging came next, according to Ventura, followed by oral sex and then intercourse. “It was his fantasy,” Ventura said. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it. He was doing the lighting. He was telling us where to be, what to say, how to act in the room.”
Sometimes, Ventura said, she’d try to “speed up” the events because she just wanted to be alone with Combs. “I, more often than not, would just want to be able to get to the other room where we could just spend time with each other alone,” she said.
2. Combs’ “Controlling” Nature
Ventura said she signed to Combs’ record label as a “naive” 19-year-old, and by the time they entered into a relationship, she was “enamored” with him. Ventura claimed that Combs asserted dominance both over her career and personal life.
Combs allegedly directed Ventura on her hairstyle and the color she should paint her nails, even suggesting certain body piercings. “Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was career, the way I dressed, like, everything,” Ventura testified. “I just didn’t feel like I had much say in it at that time being a really super young, naive, total people-pleaser.”
Regarding her living situation, Combs paid for nearly all of Ventura’s apartments in New York City and Los Angeles — all convenient distances from his residence.
Despite signing a 10-album deal with Combs’ label Bad Boy, Ventura only released one studio album. Ventura said she was constantly recording new music, but it wasn’t getting released. Lots of the songs she recorded “just didn’t see the light of day,” Ventura testified.
Venture said that Combs wanted to know where she was at all times, and if he couldn’t get a hold of her by phone immediately, Combs would incessantly call until she responded. Other times, Combs allegedly sent his team of security guards to physically track down Ventura. She claimed he’d often take away her car and phone, and kick her out of her apartment as a form of punishment.
3. Allegations of Frequent Physical Abuse
Ventura claimed Combs began physically abusing her by the time she was 22 years old. “He would mash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, um, stomp me if I was down,” she testified.
She said the abuse happened “too frequently,” resulting in “knots in my forehead, busted lips, swollen lips, black eyes, the whites of my eyes would be red, um, bruises all over my body.”
Ventura said that the physical beatings could stem from a shift in Combs’ mood. “I make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she testified. Ventura said she was seriously concerned about potentially setting Combs off and would go to great lengths to avoid making him angry.
4. The Mental Toll of Freak-Offs
During her multiple hours of testimony, Ventura broke down when she tried to explain her rationale for continuing to participate in freak-offs with Combs. “I just didn’t want anything bad to happen,” Ventura said, clarifying that “anything bad” could be Combs “being violent” with her as well as him finding another woman willing to do freak-offs with him. “When you really care about somebody, and you’re in love with them, you don’t want to disappoint them,” she added.
But continuing to participate in the freak-offs, Ventura testified, took a detrimental toll on her mental health. “I just felt, like, it was all I was good for to him,” she said shakily. “I just felt pretty horrible about myself. I felt disgusting. I was humiliated. I didn’t have those words to put together at the time, like, how horrible I really felt.”
5. Male Escorts’ Payment Was Contingent on Performance
Ventura alleged that the male escorts were typically paid a few thousand dollars at the end of freak-offs. She said that some men had trouble maintaining an erection. “It was actually pretty frequent with people that we didn’t know well,” Ventura said. “They would express … every time Sean would talk, it would throw them off, or if he moved a candle, just was distracting.”
Those who were unable to perform in the way Combs expected, Ventura claimed, “definitely didn’t get paid the normal amount” for the encounters.
6. Making Sure Escorts Were “Safe”
Ventura claimed Combs directed her to hire the male escorts for freak-offs and give them a spiel about the situation when they arrived at the hotel suite or one of their homes.
She said she was responsible for ensuring the person was “safe.” Ventura clarified that it meant that Combs “wanted me to clarify if the person was a cop,” she said. “At first, I didn’t understand, and I learned later why.”
7. “Humiliating” Sexual Acts
Ventura testified that Combs made her and the male escorts perform sexual acts that she found “humiliating,” including having freak-offs while she was menstruating and men urinating on her.
“It was disgusting,” Ventura said. “It was too much. It was overwhelming. I choked. There couldn’t have been anything on my face that was reading that I wanted to be doing that. I just laid on the floor in a position that I couldn’t easily get out of.”
From Rolling Stone US.