Trigger warning: graphic and upsetting details of alleged abuse and sexual assault
Yesterday (13 May 2025), saw P Diddy's (real name Sean Combs) sex-trafficking and racketeering trial get fully underway, with an emotional testimony from his ex-partner of more than a decade, Cassie Ventura.
In November 2023, Cassie bravely filed a lawsuit against her ex, accusing him of rape, physical abuse and sex trafficking. The suit was settled with no admission of guilt one day later, with Cassie saying, "I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control."
Her bravery to speak out, however, sparked the series of events leading up to Diddy's trial, after further accusers felt empowered to make allegations – all of which the rapper and music label mogul has firmly denied.
In May 2024, a heartbreaking video was also made public, in which Diddy can be seen beating Cassie in a hotel hallway. He later apologised for this, but continued to deny that he had forced anyone into prostitution or sex trafficked any person.
Now, Cassie is speaking in court while eight months pregnant and has shared further details of the abuse she alleges Diddy subjected her too.
Everyone's clicking on...
If you've not been following the story, here are 8 of the most powerful pieces of her testimony so far.
1) Diddy controlled - and stalled - Cassie's career
Cassie, an R&B singer, says she was just 19 when she first met Diddy in 2009, who at the time was 37 and a well known name in the music industry, with lots of power and wealth behind him. Diddy's label, Bad Boy Records, produced her one and only album, Cassie. She was initially signed up to do 10 albums, but alleges that Diddy put a halt to that after they started dating when she was 21-years-old, and that fulfilling his sexual demands became like a full-time job for her instead.
In Cassie's testimony, she claims that she was inexperienced when she started dating and sleeping with the rapper and that his abuse and demands increased over time, by which point she was in love with him and afraid to leave. "I was so young and I didn’t have the vocabulary and was just trying to understand it," she told the court. "I was sexually inexperienced. Leaving him was always confusing. I felt special and not a lot of people got that time."
2) Abusive 'freak offs' could last for days
When taking to the stand, Cassie also said Diddy would later go on to force her to partake in having sex with escorts and push her into degrading acts, while he masturbated and filmed everything from a corner of the room. Cassie says these alleged events could last for "days on end", spanning from 36 hours to up to four days, and that Diddy would sometimes have guns in his properties or on his person.
Cassie alleges Diddy would also threaten to share the footage he'd captured of so-called 'freak offs' (his preferred term for depraved sexual activities and what the federal indictment against Diddy described as "elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded").
She claims the hotel video that was leaked shows Diddy turning violent during a freak off.
3) Cassie alleges drugs and physical violence were involved
Explaining how she felt coerced into taking drugs in order to get through the long-lasting freak offs and in order to disassociate, Cassie said she would feel depleted by the end. "The freak-offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again," she told the court, alleging she would sometimes vomit during the sessions from the drugs but that Diddy would urge her to keep going.
Cassie also said she was regularly subjected to beatings from Diddy. "You make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face."
She added, "The guns came out here and there. I always felt it was a little bit of a scare tactic."
4) The allegedly forced sex acts happened in multiple locations
Cassie's testimony claims that the events happened in various locations around the world, including in hotel rooms and in Diddy's private residences in LA, New York and Miami. She said she felt "disgusted" and "humiliated" afterwards, and that rooms would often be left soiled with various bodily fluids, including blood and urine, and baby oil.
5) Diddy denies that he forced Cassie into doing anything
When Diddy's legal team put forward the argument that Cassie willingly took part in sexual acts with other people for days on end, fuelled by drugs and with strangers Diddy had selected for her, she firmly rebuffed the accusations.
Cassie also told the court that escorts hired by Diddy would urinate on her and that Diddy would sometimes pay the sex workers less if they failed to meet his standards.
Cassie also alleged Diddy had material with which he would threaten to blackmail her. "There were blackmail materials to make me feel like if I didn't do it, it would be held over my head in that way or these things would become public," she stated.
6) Diddy controlled everything about her life
Right down to the type of nails she was allowed to have, Cassie alleges, saying Diddy preferred her to have white or white french tip nails on. "When you’re in love with someone you don’t want to disappoint them," she says, when explaining why she remained in the relationship for more than a decade – something that is a very common response from abuse survivors.
7) Cassie's husband Alex Fine was allowed in the court room
However a judge ordered that Alex must leave when Cassie is questioned about an alleged rape at the hands of Diddy in 2018. On social media, Cassie has previously thanked her husband for his unwavering support and wrote in a birthday tribute post to him, "The laughter and pure joy that I get to experience with you is beyond any of my dreams and manifestations. You’ve taken care of me and my heart like no other, you're hands down the best girl dad [to our daughters Sunny and Frankie] and I’m SO excited to see you now become a father to OUR SON."
8) Cassie claims she choked on urine
Recalling one especially gutting alleged incident, Cassie said an escort urinated in her mouth to such an extent she choked. "No one could think I wanted it," she explained, alleging she told Diddy on numerous occasions that she did not want to partake in sexual acts involving urine. "It was obvious I didn't want to be on the ground being urinated on by two men."
For more information on and support with abuse, visit Women's Aid's website or call the Freephone 24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline, run by Women’s Aid in partnership with Refuge, on 0808 2000 247.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
