If any other man had asked how she was feeling, pregnant Fox5 reporter Michelle Ross wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.
But coming from the lips of the most famous showbiz villain in the world, the simple ‘how are you?’ carried a seedy undertone.
Ross, who is seven months pregnant, isn’t the only expectant mother on the rapper’s mind.
Next week, a heavily pregnant Cassie Ventura is expected to take the stand in Diddy’s blockbuster sex trafficking trial.
The rapper’s ex-girlfriend and victim of the notoriously violent smackdown video that was the catalyst for his arrest, she now holds the key to the most hotly anticipated celebrity trial in recent memory.
The singer, who is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, was spotted in New York this week as jury selection in her ex partner’s case dragged on.
She announced her pregnancy in February this year, and is understood to be in her third trimester.
While she wasn’t present in court on Friday, her wellbeing took center stage.
Her lawyer, citing her pregnancy, requested that she be able to take breaks every 90 minutes.
Cassie, the star witness against the rapper, was seen in new York City this week. She will be heavily pregnant when she faces her alleged abuser next week
The rapper, 55, repeatedly nodded and smiled at the individuals being questioned during the jury selection process this week
The prosecution agreed not to cross examiner Ventura on medical issues, either.
The rapper’s charm offensive with the pregnant reporter seemed to have worked.
‘We can still see his charismatic personality in the courtroom, the same personality that we saw over the last two decades in the limelight,’ Ross said of the rapper’s demeanor as she recalled the moment Diddy addressed her in court.
‘When we all all had to get up before the jury walked in – I am seven months pregnant – and when I stood up, Diddy and I were in clear view of each other and he mouthed to me, how are you?’ so that’s just an example of how observant he has been during the trial.’
But his treatment of Cassie will be far less gentlemanly.
On Friday, his team painted her as a violent temptress, insisting he couldn’t have coerced her into any kind of sexual acts that she didn’t want to commit herself.
Pregnant Fox5 reporter Michelle Ross was shocked when Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs addressed her in the middle of his sex-trafficking trial this week
Ventura is expected to testify in the trial next week. She has not yet been seen in court
The mutual abuse between Cassie and Diddy was so bad it amounted to ‘domestic violence’, his lawyer went as far as to say.
Marc Agnigilo said Cassie was a ‘strong capable individual who does not shy away from confrontations’.
‘It’s relevant to her nature, the fact she’s a strong person who is capable of starting physical confrontations and it’s independently relevant’, he added.
Alexandra Shapiro, another of Diddy’s lawyers, said that the incidents ‘may become relevant to rebutting the government’s argument that she was coerced, because she was a strong person.’
Shapiro added that ‘the whole dynamic between these two individuals is at the very heart of this case’.
Judge Arun Subramanian appeared skeptical.
Diddy is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine. The pair have two daughters
He noted ‘strong people can be coerced just like weak people’, adding that Shapiro’s argument was a ‘stretch.’
The judge said he was not seeing the ‘connection’ between the witnesses’ supposed acts of violence and whether she could be coerced.
Diddy’s team fought back, insisting: ‘The relevance there is we are going to take the position that there was mutual violence in their relationship.
‘There was hitting on both sides, that kind of behavior on both sides. We’re probably going to refer to it as domestic violence’.
Their doomed romance will take center stage next week, when the trial finally gets underway.
It was delayed again on Friday by the prosecution’s failure to find one of their witnesses, a woman who seems to have gone missing.
With the eyes of the world watching, the judge is now concerned some others may withdraw.
As for the Bad Boy mogul, the performance of his lifetime remains on pause.