Cassie began her fourth day of testimony in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial on Friday, May 16, by discussing the 2016 incident where he physically assaulted her at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles.
The singer, 38, said she doesn’t remember “a whole lot” about the incident but agreed with defense attorney Anna Estevao that Diddy, 55, was “intoxicated” when it happened. (Diddy, who was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied the allegations against him.)
The defense showed a text message Cassie sent Diddy afterward that read, “When you get f***ed up the wrong way you always want to show that you have the power.” Days later, Diddy texted his then-girlfriend that he was “so horny” for her. After seeing this text in court, Cassie said it was “strange” for him to text her that so soon after the physical assault.
Cassie went on to claim that Diddy took her phone on multiple occasions during their relationship and looked through it, including once in 2016 when he believed she was dating a professional football player during one of their breaks. When Cassie returned home without her phone, her mother called the police.
The defense then asked Cassie about the treatment she sought in 2023, and she explained that she completed a 45-day program at Willow House in Arizona. The center’s website says the inpatient program is “focused on healing from intimacy and relationship issues, love addiction, sexual compulsivity, emotional trauma and dual diagnosis issues faced by women.”
When Estevao asked whether Cassie was treated for sex or love addiction, she replied, “Nope.” Cassie did note that she underwent EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy, which she said “helps you recount memories.”
The defense then jumped to 2018 when Cassie and Diddy ended their relationship, displaying text messages where he seemingly tried to convince her to stay together. “Can I not get a chance to make things right?” he asked. “I haven’t taken care of you?”
In response, Cassie wrote, “You took care of me materialistically, not where I needed it. I needed you to love me and put me first.”
Estevao also questioned Cassie about her testimony earlier this week that Diddy allegedly raped her in 2018. The attorney claimed that Cassie wondered whether the alleged attack was related to Diddy’s bipolar disorder. As The New York Times noted, this marked the first time the defense had mentioned a potential bipolar diagnosis for Diddy.
Speaking about her current feelings for Diddy, Cassie said, “I don’t hate him. I have love for the past, and what it was.”
The defense went on to ask Cassie about whether her now-husband, Alex Fine, knew that she’d had sex with Diddy one final time after the alleged rape. She explained that Fine, 32, didn’t know at first, but when he found out, he punched a wall.
Cassie noted that the last time she saw Diddy was in November 2018 at a memorial service for his late partner Kim Porter, with whom he shares four children. (Porter died earlier that month at age 47.)
She also pushed back on the defense’s insinuation that her split from Diddy unfolded over several months. “It was over when I said it was over,” she declared.
Discussion then turned to Cassie’s 2023 settlement with Diddy following her bombshell lawsuit against him. Estevao hinted that Cassie, her husband and their kids moved into her parents’ home in Connecticut one month prior to the lawsuit because of “financial issues.” The “Me & U” singer pushed back against that idea, saying they simply moved because they wanted to be on the East Coast.
Cassie agreed with Estevao that she canceled a planned tour shortly after she and Diddy settled out of court for $20 million. When Estevao insinuated that she canceled the tour because she’d received the settlement and no longer needed that income, Cassie pushed back again, saying, “That wasn’t the reason why.”
Estevao ended her cross-examination by displaying a 2012 text message between Cassie and Diddy where the rapper asked whether she wanted to have a “freak off” for the last time. She replied that she wanted to have a freak off for “the first time,” adding, “For the rest of our lives.”
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson began her redirect questioning, she brought up the periods where Diddy was “kind and loving,” as illustrated by the defense. She asked Cassie whether those periods ever lasted, and the singer replied, “No.”
She went on to say that Diddy’s “moods” affected “my whole life, my career, how I felt about myself, my self-worth” and claimed her music career was hampered by his behavior. “If he was in the mood to have a freak off, my work would take a backseat,” she told the court, alleging that she would sometimes have to cancel work obligations because of freak offs.
Johnson again asked about the hotel video from 2016, which Cassie claimed showed Diddy trying to drag her back to a freak off. “He followed me into the hallway and tried to bring me back,” she alleged.
The prosecution also brought up the planned tour that Cassie canceled in late 2023. While the defense suggested she canceled it because she’d just settled with Diddy for $20 million, Cassie explained that she felt overwhelmed and didn’t want to be away from her kids. (She and Fine share daughters Frankie, 5, and Sunny, 4.)
Johnson then asked whether Cassie would give back the $20 million if it meant she would never have had to participate in freak offs. “If I never had to have freak offs, I would have agency and autonomy,” she responded. “I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get it back.”
When asked about Diddy allegedly beating her during freak offs, Cassie broke down in tears. “My mind’s a little all over the place,” she said after a defense lawyer chimed in to ask another question.
During the final round of questioning, the defense asked Cassie whether she was aware of Diddy “being controlling of other artists on his label.” She replied, “I was aware.”
Johnson closed by asking Cassie whether she has any “financial stake” in the outcome of the trial. “Absolutely not,” she responded.
Friday marked Cassie’s fourth day in a row of testifying against her ex-boyfriend. Judge Arun Subramanian had previously warned the defense to quickly wrap up their questioning of Cassie because she is eight and a half months pregnant. On Friday, the prosecution sent a letter to the judge asking that he use his power to limit the defense’s cross-examination of her if necessary, as a mistrial could happen if she goes into labor.
Since Diddy’s arrest last year, he and his team have repeatedly denied the charges as well as all additional 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 September 2024 statement. “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.”
The arrest came nearly one year after Cassie filed a lawsuit accusing Diddy of sexual and physical abuse throughout their relationship, which lasted off and on from 2007 to 2018. The rapper denied her claims in a statement shared by his attorney.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said at the time.
One day after the suit was filed, Diddy and Cassie settled out of court. In May 2024, CNN published the hotel surveillance video of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie in 2016. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
The video has been shown to jurors in the trial, and the hotel security guard who responded to the incident, Israel Florez, was questioned as a witness on Monday, May 12.
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.
