In 2022, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards. As a new lawsuit filed by Casandra Ventura recounts, he thanked his former girlfriend and Bad Boy Records signee in his acceptance speech. “I have to give a special shoutout, thank you, love, to the people that was really there for me.” He named several people, including Ventura, better known as the R&B singer Cassie, “for holding me down in the dark times, love.”
In the suit, filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, Ventura said that she spent these times trapped by Combs in a years-long cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking. The complaint alleges a disturbing pattern of assault and retaliation that took place for the duration of their relationship beginning when a 37-year old Combs, an established power player in hip-hop, met Ventura as an aspiring 19-year old entertainer in 2005. He signed her to his high-flying label and within a few years, according to the suit, lured her into “an ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fuelled lifestyle, and into a romantic relationship with him her boss, one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry, and a vicious, cruel, and controlling man nearly two decades her senior.”
Ventura claimed in the suit that Combs repeatedly beat her and forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed the encounters. According to the suit, Combs described these encounters as “freak offs” designed to fulfil a fantasy he called “voyeurism,” and they often involved drug use that eventually sent Ventura on a path towards addiction. Towards the end of their relationship in 2018, Ventura said in the complaint, Combs forced his way into her home and raped her.
In one of the alleged “freak offs” in 2016, the suit said, Combs punched Ventura in the face and gave her a black eye. When he fell asleep and she tried to leave their Los Angeles hotel room, Ventura claimed, he woke up and followed her into the hallway, where he threw glass vases at her. According to the suit, Combs paid the hotel $50,000 (£40,217) for the footage.
“After years in silence and darkness,” Ventura said in a statement. “I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.” She filed the lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act in New York, enacted last year, which grants alleged victims of sexual abuse a one-year window, ending next week, to file civil complaints in instances where the statute of limitations has passed.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Combs’s attorney Ben Brafman said in a statement. “For the past 6 months, Mr. Combs, has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million (£24 million), under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”