Over a Decade of Abuse Defined Cassie and Diddy’s Relationship, According to New Lawsuit

R&B singer Cassandra Ventura filed a lawsuit against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Thursday alleging the rap artist and mogul subjected her to years of abuse and violence.

Ventura signed on to his label and released one album in what looked to be a promising career. Instead, Ventura is alleging Combs caused her “lifelong harm” after their more than ten-year relationship.

Audrey O’Day, of the early 2000’s group Danity Kane, was one of the first to show her support for Ventura. On X, she shared screenshots of the news, claiming she has known about Combs’ alleged abuse for some time.

Danity Kane, and O’Day, were signed under Combs’ record label, Big Boy records around the time when Ventura joined the label.

Ventura and Combs met when she was 19 years old

According to the lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in New York, in late 2005 or early 2006, Combs heard Ventura’s first single “Me & U” at a club and wanted to sign her to his label. Combs was 37 years old when Ventura signed a ten-album deal with his record label.

Her first album under that label was “Cassie” which debuted in August 2006 at number four on the US Billboard 200. According to the lawsuit that’s when Combs started to try and nurture Ventura’s career. The suit describes how in appearances on MTV’s Total Request Live and other live television shows, Ventura had severe anxiety that led to several bad reviews of her live performances.

After a year under his record label, the lawsuit states that Combs had become “deeply entrenched” in Ventura’s life “asserting possession and control over her.” In November 2006, Combs and Ventura performed together at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Denmark.

It’s around that time that Ventura says Combs started showing romantic interest in her. “Ms. Ventura shrugged off the gossip, and in fact expressed disgust given the large age gap between her and the president of her record label,” the suit alleges.

Combs and Ventura were both in other relationships when he started pursuing her

When Ventura turned 21, both her and Combs were publicly dating other people. Still, in the suit, Ventura alleges that’s when the abuse started. He “pulled her into a bathroom and forcibly kissed her” at an afterparty in a hotel room following her birthday party.

At the time, Ventura states, she ran out of the bathroom and told her best friend what had happened. The suit claims she was lured into a relationship by Combs who demanded she spend time with him. Worried that it would have a negative impact on her career, Ventura would go out with him in New York City and even spend weekends with him in Miami.

It was around this time, that Ventura alleges Combs started giving her drugs like ecstasy. She claims she spent most of her time with him in a “drug-fueled lifestyle that kept her complacent and compliant.”

He also started paying for a lot of her life. According to the lawsuit, he rented an apartment in Manhattan for her around 2008 or 2009 within walking distance of his house in New York.

He also allegedly paid for other apartments in California, and bought her a luxury car a few years later. Every part of her life, as the lawsuit describes, from vacations, homes, makeup and clothes were paid for by Combs or his companies.

Ventura’s lawsuit claims the relationship turned violent and abusive

Combs and Ventura dated until around 2018, and in that time, the suit states that he would violently beat her multiple times a year, and leave bruises on her body. It also states he would often pay for hotel rooms for Ventura to stay in while her bruises healed.

Because of Combs’ status and influence, Ventura did not think reporting his abuse would stop it. In fact, as the suit states, she believed it would only give him “another excuse to hurt her.”

In 2011, the two were going through what the suit calls a “rough patch.” That’s when Ventura started dating musician Kid Cudi. When Combs found about this relationship, he attacked Ventura, hitting her several times.

A few months later, during Paris Fashion Week, he told Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and wanted to make sure he would be home when it happened. Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway around that time.

In September 2018, the two had dinner in California and Ventura was ready to end the relationship for good. The suit alleges that when she got back home, Combs forced his way into the house and raped Ventura in her home.

Soon after, she left that house which Combs had paid for and returned the car he bought her.

Since the suit has come out, Combs has denied the allegations from his ex-girlfriend.