During the second day of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial, Cassie testified that she hid out for a week after suffering physical abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.
The singer — real name Casandra Ventura — alleged on Wednesday, May 14, that she was sequestered in a hotel room after being stomped on and beaten by Diddy, 55, while they were dating. Cassie, 38, recalled wanting to see her mom, Stacey Hobson, as her visible wounds healed but claimed “it wouldn’t be safe” to leave.
“I understood Sean’s capabilities, his access to guns, the threats he made prior to that,” Cassie said during her testimony. “I was privy.”
Cassie claimed that her mother saw a blind item in the press referencing the alleged abuse and asked whether it was about her and Diddy.
“I didn’t tell my mom the truth because I was ashamed,” Cassie added, getting emotional while on the stand. “I also didn’t want to put my mother in danger for knowing anything of that magnitude.”
Eventually, Cassie came clean to her mom about the alleged attacks, claiming that December 2011 was the first time she was beaten by Diddy. Cassie did not, however, tell her mom about Diddy’s freak offs.
“I couldn’t hurt her like that,” she said. “You can’t justify it to anyone. Especially not your mom.”
Cassie was detailing the first time that she spoke to her mom about Diddy’s alleged abuse when she requested a break from testifying. She was granted a 10-minute pause.
The singer initially took the stand in Diddy’s trial on Tuesday, May 13, sharing alleged details of his freak offs.
During Wednesday’s testimony, Cassie further claimed that Diddy attacked her “too frequently” when they argued.
“There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse,” she told the court. “Dragging, different things of that nature.”
Cassie met Diddy in 2005 when she was around 19. She claimed that they kissed for the first time on her 21st birthday but weren’t dating yet. Cassie and Diddy were in an on-and-off relationship from 2007 to 2018. In November 2023, Cassie filed a lawsuit accusing Diddy of repeated physical abuse and sexual assault for the duration of their relationship. Diddy denied the allegations and settled with Cassie outside of court one day after she filed.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said at the time.
In May 2024, CNN published a hotel surveillance video from 2016 of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
Cassie is just one of the alleged victims who has taken legal action against the disgraced music mogul. Diddy was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Since his arrest, Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His four requests for bail were denied by Judge Arun Subramanian.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
