Casandra “Cassie” Ventura took the stand at her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial starting on May 13
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NEED TO KNOW
- Casandra “Cassie” Ventura began testimony against her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex trafficking trial on May 13
- She took the stand to speak about his alleged “Freak Off” sex parties and her decade-long relationship with the music mogul
- Combs is standing trial for his arrest on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution
Casandra “Cassie” Ventura began testifying against her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex trafficking trial on May 13 in New York City.
On the first day of her testimony, Ventura got emotional while going into detail over her decade-long relationship with Combs and the abuse she allegedly suffered. Ventura, who is considered the prosecution’s star witness, also spoke about the alleged “freak offs” Combs hosted, which were sex parties where he allegedly forced her and others to have sexual encounters with male sex workers while he watched.
Ventura, who is married to personal trainer Alex Fine and eight months pregnant with her third child, also shed insight into her personal relationship with Combs and recalled some of the moments Combs allegedly took advantage of their 17-year age gap. Ventura continued testifying against her ex on May 14.
The hip hop mogul was arrested and indicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in September 2024. He pleaded not guilty and has vehemently denied all the charges.
Here’s everything to know about what Cassie Ventura has said about her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex trafficking trial.
Ventura went into detail over Diddy’s alleged “Freak Offs”
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During her first day of testimony on May 13, Ventura spoke at length about Combs’ alleged “Freak Offs” — sex parties Combs allegedly orchestrated involving women having sexual encounters with male escorts.
“The [Freak Offs] performance involved watching Sean watch me with another person and direct us on what we were doing sexually,” she said in court.
Ventura recalled feeling “confused and nervous” when Combs asked her to participate in a “Freak Off” for the first time after she had recently turned 22.
“I knew it was something he wanted to do. I just remember my stomach falling to my butt. I had just turned 22 — didn’t have a concept the Freak Offs would be a turn-on,” she remembered thinking. “I was confused, nervous, but I loved him so much.”
At the time, Ventura felt like she didn’t have an option on whether or not she could participate, because she “didn’t know what ‘no’ could be, or what ‘no’ could turn into,” she said in court.
Ventura further claimed that the “Freak Offs” could last days at a time, and told the courtroom, “The longest was four days or even more with breaks. Then I was recovering from the drugs, dehydration — just trying to stay awake all the time. The Freak Offs became a job.”
In addition to “performing” in the alleged “Freak Offs,” Ventura also said that she was taking drugs to disassociate from the sexual activities that Combs allegedly coerced her to do.
“During Freak Offs, I would take [pills] all the time. If we ran out, we would call friends, drug dealers,” Ventura said, while later adding, “For me it was dissociative and numbing. I can’t imagine doing any of it without a buffer — it was emotionless. I didn’t want to have sex with a stranger.”
Ventura claimed that she got sick from the drugs during some of the “Freak Offs,” but Combs allegedly continued to force her to perform even after she threw up from the drugs. The drugs varied, but Ventura listed cocaine, ketamine, GHB, MDMA, ecstasy and mushrooms as substances she took during the “Freak Offs.”
After the “Freak Offs” had ended, Ventura claimed she was often in charge of cleaning up the hotel rooms, which were usually filled with blood and urine
Ventura alleged that Diddy would urinate in her mouth during “Freak Offs”
In addition to discussing what allegedly took place during Combs’ “Freak Offs,” Ventura also shared some of the things she had to personally endure.
Ventura testified that Combs or one of the male escorts he hired for the “Freak Offs” — or sometimes both parties at the same time — “would urinate on me.”
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked if Cassie wanted Combs or the escort to urinate on her, she replied, “No. But there was no conversation. It was a turn-on for (Combs), so it happened.”
Ventura claimed that she found herself “choking” at certain points because there was “too much urine in my mouth.”
“I don’t want anyone to urinate on me,” she said. “Sean would urinate in my mouth — not super often but often enough.”
Even though she didn’t want to participate in the act, Ventura was “high and in the moment.” She added, “There is not a whole lot of control you have with two men standing over you peeing. I thought it was obvious I didn’t want to do it.”
In addition to having to ingest urine, Ventura also alleged that Combs forced her to have sex with male escorts while she was on her period
“I was expected to have freak offs on my period,” she said. “Sean would expect it. I don’t think anyone wants to do that.”
She claimed Diddy “controlled a lot of my life”
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Ventura and Combs were in an on-again, off-again relationship until 2018, and Ventura recalled feeling “controlled” for most of their relationship.
“He controlled a lot of my life,” she testified, while adding that she was “naive” and a “total people-pleaser” when they began dating.
As the relationship developed, Ventura claimed that he would control her appearance and connection to the outside world. When he was displeased with something Ventura did, she claimed that he would “punish” her by taking away her phone, computer or other electronics for “however long I was being punished for.”
“Sean is a really polarizing person; he was charming,” Ventura said on the stand. “It’s hard to really be able to determine what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen.”
Ventura also claimed that Combs enforced a strict exercise regimen and wanted her to dress a certain way.
“Some days he would want me to be really sexy,” she said, “and be his woman other days.”
She got emotional while recalling how Diddy “taught” her about oral sex
During her testimony, Ventura looked back on the start of their relationship and got emotional while speaking about one of their first encounters at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan just after her 21st birthday.
“I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time — this exciting, entertaining, fun guy who also happened to have my career in his hands,” Ventura said while starting to get emotional.
Ventura, who signed a 10-album deal with Combs’ Bad Boy Records in 2006, claimed that during the meetup, Combs introduced her to oral sex.
“Sean taught me how. He gave me oral sex, I did not reciprocate — I just went home,” Ventura said. “I heard about it from him. He made me feel crazy for not reciprocating but I didn’t understand and I was in a relationship with someone else.”
She continued saying, “I was so young and I didn’t have the vocabulary and was just trying to understand it. I was sexually inexperienced. Leaving him was always confusing. I felt special and not a lot of people got that time.”
She claimed that she was not sober when she had sex with Diddy for the first time
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While speaking about her personal relationship with the defendant, Ventura discussed the first time they had sex after Combs gave her ecstasy.
“I was drinking wine, then started to take drugs, a blue dolphin ecstasy pill,” she said about the encounter in Miami. “Sean gave it to me, I had never taken it before. I was just out of it, laughing, didn’t know what it was until a little bit later.”
Ventura recalled feeling “euphoric” and “really high, sensitive to touch and all of your senses.”
When their relationship began, Ventura claimed that Combs was still in a relationship with Kim Porter and that Combs was careful not to make it “look bad.”
Ventura claimed Diddy recorded her sexual encounters for “blackmail materials”
While Combs was allegedly forcing Ventura to participate in sex acts during “Freak Offs,” he was also allegedly filming her and using them as “blackmail materials,” Ventura testified.
Ventura said she lived in fear that he would release the footage in retaliation, as “he had many resources to do that.”
During her second day of testimony on May 14, prosecutors further questioned Ventura over what the specific blackmail materials were. She explained that they were “Freak Off” videos that showed her doing things that made her look “not great,” according to CBS News.
She testified that it was “common” for Combs to threaten to leak the tapes when he was “upset” or if she was dating someone new.
“When he was upset about something. It was just a pretty common thing,” Ventura said of the threats to release the videos. “Would say he was going to release them and embarrass me and put my career in jeopardy.”
Ventura alleged that Diddy asked her to get into a pool filled with baby oil
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Ventura was speaking about her involvement in Combs’ “Freak Offs” when she claimed that during one of the parties, Combs asked her to get into an inflatable pool filled with baby oil inside a hotel room.
During her testimony, Ventura said that she was fully clothed at the time and did not want to get into the pool. However, she also acknowledged that she was more scared of the possible repercussions she’d face if she didn’t follow Combs’ wishes.
“Something that Sean wanted to happen, that’s what was going to happen,” Ventura said.
After Combs was indicted in September 2024, authorities said that they found 1,000 bottles of baby oil in his Miami and Los Angeles homes. However, Combs’ attorneys disputed the number and his lawyer, Tony Geragos, later told the jury during opening statements, “You may know of his love of baby oil. Is that a federal crime? No.”
She addressed the now-infamous footage of Combs assaulting her at a hotel in 2016
On the second day of testimony on May 14, Ventura discussed the now-infamous surveillance footage of Combs hitting and kicking her outside a hotel room in Los Angeles in March 2016.
Ventura told the court that she didn’t fight back, because it “just made him more violent, made him stronger.” She explained that in the past, she had tried to fight back, but it “surprised” him.
“He was surprised I was actually fighting back— it made him have more anger, more frustration,” she claimed, while later adding, “I did [fight back] more on the early side [of their relationship] and make it worse for myself.”
Ventura testified that the 2016 assault left her with a black eye, bruised and cut lip and several bruises on her arm and legs.