Music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been accused of rape and repeated physical abuse by his former girlfriend, R&B legend Cassie, in a new federal lawsuit.
The rapper, who goes by P Diddy, allegedly controlled and abused Cassie for over a decade – as well as plying her with drugs, beating her, and forcing her to have sex with multiple male prostitutes while he watched and recorded.
The pair, who met in 2005 when she was aged 19, split in 2018. The lawsuit claims that just before the end of their relationship, Combs forced his way into her home and raped her.
Diddy, 54, has vehemently denied all of the ‘offensive and outrageous allegations.’
Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, said in a legal document that was filed in Manhattan’s Federal District Court on Thursday: ‘After years in silence and darkness. 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.’
Her lawyer Douglas Wigdor claimed Diddy offered her ‘eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit’ but that she declined to ‘give a voice to all woman who suffer in silence’.
The rapper, who goes by P Diddy, allegedly controlled and abused Cassie for over a decade – as well as plying her with drugs, beating her, and forcing her to have sex with multiple male prostitutes on video
The pair, who met in 2005 when she was 19, split in 2018. The lawsuit claims that just before the end of her relationship, Combs forced his way into her home and raped her
Among the serious allegations is that Combs sex trafficked Cassie, 37, to male prostitutes to fulfil his voyeurism fantasies in hotels and at his home.
The lawsuit claims she was directed to have sex with multiple men – sometimes in masks and costumes – while the music exec watched, masturbated, and filmed.
Cassie, in the documents, called the ordeals ‘horrific encounters’ and said she had to take drugs to disassociate during the arrangements which Diddy allegedly called ‘freak offs’.
The lawsuit states that the music executive, who she first met as a teenager, told her it would ‘turn him on’ if he saw her with ‘another d***’.
He allegedly hired a man and brought him to his home in Los Angeles to engage in the sex acts with Cassie.
‘Mr. Combs directed Ms. Ventura to perform sexual acts with this man while Mr. Combs watched them,’ the lawsuit states.
‘He masturbated while he directed Ms. Ventura and the man to do specific sexual acts. The entire encounter lasted multiple days.’
She claimed Diddy got drunk during a ‘freak off’ around March 2016 and punched her in the face leaving her with a black eye.
Cassie said she tried to leave the hotel room when he fell asleep but he woke up and began screaming at her.
He allegedly grabbed at her, took the glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her ‘causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape’.
She managed to escape to her apartment but claimed she returned over fears would be even angrier.
‘When she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment, suggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway,’ the lawsuit states.
She alleged that Diddy paid the hotel staff $50,000 for the hallway security footage from that evening.
On another occasion in 2013, Diddy allegedly set up a ‘freak off’ and was charged tens of thousands of dollars in damages by the hotel.
Cassie was expected to facilitate the location and hiring of male sex workers for the ‘freak offs’, according to the lawsuit.
She was allegedly instructed to use websites and escort services to find men with ‘large black penises’.
It alleged that Diddy would insist on the encounters weekly and repeatedly told her it was ‘our thing’ and ‘our secret’.
Cassie claimed the ‘freak offs’ would often take place in hotel suites in cities including New York City, Miami and Los Angeles and that Diddy would pay to fly the sex workers to the location as well as pay them thousands of dollars in cash.
His assistants would allegedly help set up the ‘freak offs’ by providing baby oil and lubricant.
The lawsuit states: ‘Mr. Combs always supplied Ms. Ventura (and the sex worker) with copious amounts of drugs before and during the FOs.
‘Ms. Ventura was given ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol in excessive amounts during FOs, which allowed her to disassociate during these horrific encounters.
‘It became common place to get IV fluids in the days after an FO to recover from the excessive substances pushed upon her.’
Cassie was allegedly required to dress up in lingerie for the sex encounters and wear white nail polish to contrast with the skin of the black male sex workers.
She claimed Diddy would ask her to pour excessive amounts of oil over herself before he instructed her and the sex workers what to do.
‘Mr. Combs would say things like, “grab that big Black d***” and ask her “how does it feel?” as he directed her to perform for him,’ the lawsuit states.
Diddy allegedly used his phone, laptop and tablet to film the ‘freak offs’ and treated it like a ‘personal art project’, adjusting the lighting.
Cassie said she deleted photographs and videos of the sex acts if they were taken on her phone but claimed Diddy told her he kept many.
The lawsuit also claims that he asked Ventura to carry his gun in her purse on at least two occasions.
Combs allegedly plied her with ecstasy and ketamine, and often beat her up. She never told authorities because it ‘would merely give Mr. Combs another excuse to hurt her.’
Cassie alleged that Diddy blew up Kid Cudi’s car around February 2012 after he found out they were in a relationship together.
She claimed he went through her phone and found emails between her and the American rapper and became enraged.
Diddy allegedly placed a manual corkscrew in between his fingers and lunged at her, according to the lawsuit and she ran away to stay with Kid Cudi.
Cassie later returned and the music executive allegedly hit her several times, and then kicked her in the back as she tried to run out the door.
During Paris Fashion week, she claims Diddy told her he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and that he wanted to make sure he was home with his friends when it happened.
‘Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway,’ the lawsuit stated.
‘Ms. Ventura was terrified, as she began to fully comprehend what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had slighted him.’
In August 2015, Diddy allegedly picked up her friend ‘like a child’ and dangled her over a 17th-floor balcony while intoxicated at Cassie’s surprise dinner for her 29th birthday.
Cassie claimed that Diddy forced her to stay at his his home in Holmby Hills with one of his sons after one beating.
‘While there, Mr. Combs FaceTimed Ms. Ventura, and stated, “you gotta go up and put more makeup on, my son can’t see you like that.”‘ the lawsuit stated.
Cassie also claims that Combs would threaten to suppress her music if she did not obey his ‘violent’ orders. He also paid for her car and apartment, and had access to her personal medical records, the suit claims.
The lawsuit claimed that Diddy got Cassie high for the first time in September 2007 when he handed her an ecstasy pill.
It stated that on one occasion, the pair were using drugs at his Los Angeles home when one of Diddy’s security staff barged in and told him that his ‘longtime rival’ record executive Suge Knight was spotted at Mel’s Drive-In Diner in Los Angeles.
He allegedly got dressed, retrieved multiple guns from a safe and ran out to find where Knight was said to be dining leaving Cassie terrified and in tears.
The lawsuit claims that Diddy ‘ used his money and power to orchestrate extensive efforts to hide the evidence of his abuse’ by forcing Cassie to hide in hotels for days at a time to let her bruises heal.
It alleges that he beat her repeatedly in an Escalade by kicking and hitting her following a party with Jay-Z.
The lawsuit claims that in January 2009 that Diddy assaulted her after he found out she spoke to another music manager at a party in Los Angeles.
‘In the car leaving the club, Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura, pushing her into a corner of the vehicle and stomping on her face,’ it stated.
‘Mr. Combs’s security staff, Roger Bonds, tried to stop the beating, but was unable to deescalate the situation.’
She is said to been bleeding profusely and attempted to run away before being ushered into Diddy’s home where she began to throw up.
‘Upon recognizing the damage he had done and the physical evidence of his abuse, Mr. Combs panicked, and forced his staff to bring Ms. Ventura to a hotel suite at The London Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was required to stay for a week,’ the lawsuit claims.
Cassie claimed she asked to go home to her parents but was not allowed to leave so she lied to her mother when she asked her about an online gossip forum that reported on the alleged assault.
She said she was ‘terrified, isolated, and unable to see a pathway out’. ‘She found herself becoming numb to the abuse she was experiencing, and became entirely beholden to Mr. Combs’s demands,’ the lawsuit stated.
‘She began to blindly follow his instructions out of fear of again being on the receiving end of a vicious beating.’
Cassie claimed that he raped her in September 2018 and that he forced his way into her apartment after dinner in Malibu, California.
He allegedly tried to kiss her before forcibly removing her clothes and unbuckling his belt.
‘He proceeded to rape Ms. Ventura while she repeatedly said “no” and tried to push him away,’ the lawsuit claims.
Following this alleged incident, Cassie said she took steps to completely separate herself from ‘her long-time abuser’.
She eventually left the home he paid for and returned the car he purchased for her.
But Cassie said she suffers from immense emotional distress from the ‘immense trauma endured over a decade with Mr Combs’.
The duo were together for 11 years, from when Cassie was 19
Diddy, who also goes by the stage name Puff Daddy, is worth an estimated $1 billion after being one of the star figures in the commercialization of hip-hop in the 1990s
Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura pictured in May 2017
‘Cassie—Ms. Casandra Ventura—was held down by Mr. Combs and endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,’ the lawsuit stated.
‘For Ms. Ventura, the “dark times” were those she spent trapped by Mr. Combs in a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking.
‘He lured Ms. Ventura into an ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled 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.’
Cassie claimed that throughout their relationship ‘was prone to uncontrollable rage’ and frequently beat her.
‘These beatings were witnessed by Mr. Combs’ staff and employees of Bad Boy Entertainment and Mr. Combs’s related businesses, but no one dared to speak up against their frightening and ferocious boss,’ the lawsuit alleged.
‘He often showered her with gifts following incidents of physical violence, a typical pattern of behavior by serial abusers.
‘Adding insult to injury, Mr. Combs used illegal substances and threats of violence to force Ms. Ventura into repeated unwanted sexual encounters with male sex workers.’
She claimed that she tried to escape him multiple times but would be found by Diddy’s ‘vast network of corporations and affiliated entities’ who told her to return to him.
Cassie said that although she has ‘fully escaped’ Diddy the ‘harm that the assaults and sexual abuse he caused her to experience for nearly a decade will forever haunt her’.
The lawsuit claimed she has required intensive medical and psychological care to recover from ‘trauma she lived through’.
She is seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit is brought under the Adult Survivors Act – which is a New York law allowing people to file claims even after the statute of limitations has run out.
The suit said: ‘With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life.’
Ben Brafman, Combs’ lawyer, said: ‘Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.
But her attorney Wigdor told DailyMail.com: ‘Mr. Combs offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and decided to give a voice to all woman who suffer in silence. Ms. Ventura should be applauded for her bravery.’
‘For the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 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’s reputation and seeking a payday.’
Diddy, who also goes by the stage name Puff Daddy, is worth an estimated $1 billion after being one of the star figures in the commercialization of hip-hop in the 1990s.
The lawsuit notes one event in 2009 where Combs saw her speaking to another agent, so he pushed her into a car and kicked her repeatedly in the face until she was bloodied
The hip-hop couple, who split after a decade of dating, are pictured at the Met Gala in 2018
He grew to be one of his generation’s most notable music producers – working with names such as Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige.
Combs founded Bad Boy – his record label – which Cassie was signed to in 2006.
Cassie has since married Alex Fine and has two children with him.
She was swept up in his luxurious lifestyle and reaped the benefits of having her debut album released under his label.
Combs is no stranger to lawsuits – but they often are surrounding his alcohol brands.
In May this year, Combs sued spirits company Diageo claiming his vodka and tequila brands didn’t receive promised investments while being treated as inferior ‘urban’ products.
The lawsuit filed by Combs Wine and Spirits in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan alleged that Diageo North America starved Combs’ Ciroc vodka and DeLeon tequila brands of resources even as it showered attention on other celebrity brands.
Diageo bought actor George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila brand for $1 billion in 2017, for example.
Combs said Diageo leadership told him his race was one of the reasons it limited distribution to urban neighborhoods.
He was also told that some Diageo leaders resented him for making too much money, according to the lawsuit.