NEW YORK (AP) — R&B singer Cassie was forced under cross-examination Thursday to read to a jury her sexually explicit messages with former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, some of which showed her expressing enthusiasm for encounters with other men at Combs’ behest that she previously testified she “hated doing.”
Lawyers for Combs are seeking to portray Cassie as a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs denies all the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in these encounters with sex workers, which he called “freak-offs,” and of using his network of employees to facilitate illegal activities, which is a key part of the racketeering charge.
Messages between Combs and Cassie — both romantic and lurid — were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in Manhattan. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read aloud what Combs said while Cassie recited what she wrote to him.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, read numerous explicit messages, including some in which she described in graphic detail what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. At one point, she asked for a short break from the readings, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted.
In August 2009, Combs asked her when she wanted to have the next episode, and she replied “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.” Combs’ lawyers have insisted that all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.
Later that year, however, she had also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.
As the messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defense table, sitting back with his hands folded and his legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters.
While reading more affectionate conversations, Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, a larger-than-life personality. “I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much,” she said. Estevao spoke gently during the questioning, which at times had such a friendly tone that they seemed like two girlfriends chatting.
Cassie’s testimony was in contrast to the violence and shame she said on Wednesday accompanied her “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers that Combs watched and controlled during their relationship — which lasted from 2007 to 2018 and began when she was 19 and he was in his 30s.
While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle.”
Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to the swingers lifestyle.
“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”
Cassie has testified that these encounters were fueled by drugs and would last hours and even days, with her sometimes taking IV fluids to recover and eventually developing an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterwards.
She testified Wednesday that Combs raped her when she broke up with him in 2018, and that he kept her locked in a life of physical abuse by threatening to release videos of her during the freak-offs.
The 38-year-old is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child, and has held up well on the witness stand. She cried several times the previous two days while being questioned by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained composed and matter-of-fact as she talked about the most sensitive subjects. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million — a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday — but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
