As Cassie’s testimony in ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial continues, she has made it clear that she’s moved on from what she has alleged to be an abusive relationship.
Cassie, 38, and Diddy, 55, dated off and on from 2007 to 2018, during which time she alleges the rap mogul sexually and physically abused her. (He has denied her allegations.)
“I don’t hate him,” she said on the stand on Friday, May 16. “I have love for the past, and what it was.”
About one year before Diddy’s September 2024 arrest on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, Cassie filed a suit against him outlining her accusations. Diddy pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and denied all the allegations in the lawsuit.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said in November 2023, in response to the suit.
One day after the suit was filed, Diddy and Cassie settled out of court. She revealed earlier this week that the settlement agreement was for $20 million.
In May 2024, CNN published a hotel surveillance video of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie in 2016. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
Cassie has spent the past four days testifying about her relationship with Diddy, during which time she has accused Diddy of raping her and forcing her to participate in sexual activity against her will during his alleged “freak offs.”
She explained on Wednesday, May 14, that the emotional toll of Diddy’s alleged abuse caused her to try and walk into oncoming traffic before her husband, Alex Fine, stopped her.
“I was spinning out,” she testified. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point.”
Following that incident, Cassie said she entered trauma therapy, where she began writing a book about her time with Diddy. She added that she gave him some of the chapters.
“I really wanted Sean to read the information,” she said. “I wanted him to understand what I had to learn to understand over that period.”
In the months following his arrest, Diddy’s legal team has repeatedly denied the claims 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 last year. “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 is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. 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. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
