Diddy forced me into sick sex sessions with male escorts and terrorised me with beatings, star’s ex Cassie tells court
HIP-HOP mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ex had sex with male escorts for up to four days while living in terror of beatings, she told a court.
Cassie Ventura, 38, said: “You make the wrong face . . . then I was getting hit in the face.”’
The r’n’b singer said she was a sexual novice when she fell in love with the rapper, 55, having been won over by his wealth and charm.
Within a year, she said she agreed to marathon “freak off” sex sessions with strangers to prove her love and keep him happy.
But Ms Ventura told a New York court how she began to experience a different side of Diddy — what she called “his abusive side”.
She added: “Very controlling over my life, the things I wanted to do . . . but there’s still love there.
“Control was everything from the way I looked, what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face.”
Ms Ventura said this was combined with fears of blackmail when Combs recorded sex sessions, which lasted from 36 hours to four days.
She said the sex became her job and she took part fearing the star would release the footage.
Ms Ventura later fought back tears as she told how she was made to feel disgusted with herself by Combs.
Denying she wanted to engage in every “freak off”, she said: “I just felt it was all I was good for.
“I felt disgusted. I was humiliated, I didn’t have those words to put together at the time, how horrible I felt. I couldn’t talk to anybody.”
Asked about Combs’ temper, she said: “He’d be violent. His look would change. I wouldn’t know what would happen.
“Best way (to describe it) is his eyes go black. The person I was in love with was no longer there.”
Asked if she enjoyed any parts of the sex sessions, she said: “Just the one on one time I’d get. I did feel very close to him. As sad as it was, it was the only time I could get.
“When you really care about somebody and you’re in love with them, you don’t want to disappoint them.”
“I never wanted him to feel I judged him for it but I wanted him to know it made me feel horrible, made me feel worthless, like I didn’t have anything else to offer.”
Ms Ventura testified despite being eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her third child with husband, Alex Fine, a personal trainer hired by Combs to work with her.
She said she was 19 when Combs signed her on a ten-record deal to his Bad Boy Records label in 2006.
‘CALLING THE SHOTS’
They had sex for the first time on a boat trip in Miami after he gave her an ecstasy pill. And she alleged Combs quickly began calling “all the shots” during their decade-long relationship.
She described how the rapper would “stomp me in the head if I was down” and beat her so badly that the whites of her eyes turned red.
Prosecutors claim triple-Grammy winner Combs ran a “criminal enterprise” coercing women into sex and threatening them if they went public.
He faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution.
Combs’ lawyers conceded he was a domestic abuser but that his sex life was not a crime.
He claims all of the sex acts were consensual and that his appetites were kinky but not criminal.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, had sought to have Ms Ventura seated in the witness box before the jury came in on the grounds her pregnancy could encourage sympathy. But the judge disagreed.
Combs kept his eyes fixed on her as she took her seat.
Detailing their arguments, Ms Ventura said: “If they were violent arguments they would usually result in some sort of physical abuse.
He would bash my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down”.
Asked by prosecutor Emily Anne Johnson how frequently, Ms Ventura replied: “Too frequently.”
The singer added: “Within the first year Sean proposed to me this idea where he’d watch me in sexual activity with a third party, specifically another man.”
With a sigh, Ms Ventura said in a halting voice: “It entails hiring of an escort, and setting up this experience so I could perform for Sean.”
When Combs floated the idea of “freak offs”, Ms Ventura said she remembered “my stomach falling to my butt”.
Over time it turned into the fact there were blackmail material to make me feel if I didn’t do it it would be hung over my head or these things would become public.
Cassie Ventura
She added: “The nervousness and confusion on that moment . . . I had just turned 22. I didn’t have a concept of how that would be turn-on but I also felt a sense of responsibility with him sharing something like that with me.
“I was confused, nervous but also loved him very much. Pretty quickly I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing, especially as regularly as it became. But I wanted to make him happy. It got to a point I didn’t feel I had much of a choice.”
Ms Ventura said she feared making Combs angry, adding: “Over time it turned into the fact there were blackmail material to make me feel if I didn’t do it it would be hung over my head or these things would become public.
“It was always in the back of my mind I’d be hurt by him.
“Sean is a really polarising person, also very charming, so it’s hard to be able to decide on that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants.
“I just didn’t know. I just didn’t know what would happen.”
FEARED HIS ANGER
Before she met Combs, she thought he was a “larger than life” figure in the music industry. Ms Ventura repeatedly called herself “naive” including in her belief they were in a monogamous relationship.
She said: “I was insanely jealous but also super young, didn’t get it at all. I didn’t get that he was him.
“As he would say, ‘I’m Puff Daddy and Puff Daddy has many women’. He likes the company of women.
“I had to learn that over time. He made me feel like we were in a monogamous relationship.”
She said Combs became more controlling and abusive, adding: “If I wasn’t smiling at him the way he wanted, I just looked a certain way he didn’t like — maybe I was a brat or something — he would let me know I need to fix my face or watch my mouth.”
Describing the “freak offs”, Ms Ventura said: “They ranged anywhere from 36, 48 to 72 hours. The longest was four days. Maybe even more on and off with breaks. A significant part of the week”.
Recovery was about “recovering from the drugs, dehydration, staying awake all that time”, she said.
She and Mr Fine have been married six years and have two daughters. She first announced their relationship in 2018, two months after splitting from Combs.
Earlier, Judge Arun Subramanian indicated he could make the “freak off” videos and photos public despite Ms Ventura wanting them sealed.
Referring to media requests to see the material, he said: “I’m inclined to grant the application.”
Combs was again supported at court by mum Janice.
He denies all the charges.
He faces life imprisonment if convicted.