“With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past,” the R&B singer said in a statement.
Content warning: This article contains descriptions of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Casandra Ventura, the R&B singer known professionally as Cassie, has shared a statement following the release of a video showing her then-boyfriend, the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, assaulting her in 2016.
“Thank you for all the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those I have yet to meet,” she wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. “The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning. Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become.”
Last week, CNN published what appears to be surveillance footage from a hotel hallway. In the recording, Ventura is seen leaving a hotel room and is then brutally dragged and kicked by Combs, the rapper also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy.
In her statement, Ventura says that she is “better today, but I will always be recovering from my past.”
She continues: Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to take this matter seriously. My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time.”
The video is consistent with details in a civil lawsuit that Ventura filed against Combs in November 2023; she alleged that the billionaire record producer had physically and sexually abused her over the course of a decade. In the filing, she also described one incident in which Combs allegedly punched her at the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles, and as she tried to escape down a hallway, he grabbed her. Ventura also alleged in the suit that Combs paid hotel staff $50,000 to obtain the security footage of the incident.
Diddy posts apology video
Two days after the video was released, Combs posted an apology video on Instagram in which he described his behavior as “inexcusable.”
Despite previously denying Ventura’s allegations of sexual and physical assault, he said on the app: “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
He added that he’d “hit rock bottom” at the time he committed the assault and has since “sought out professional help.”
“I’ve been going to therapy, going to rehab, had to ask God for his mercy and grace,” Combs says. “I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to being a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
Other allegations against Diddy
The hip-hop mogul has been the target of several lawsuits over the past year. He settled with Ventura a day after she filed her claim for an undisclosed amount.
In November 2023, he was sued by Joi Dickerson-Neal, who accused Combs of drugging and raping her in 1991 while she was a student at Syracuse University. The suit was filed just before the deadline for the Adult Survivors Act, a New York State law that allowed people alleging sexual abuse to sue even after the statute of limitations had expired.
That same month, Liza Gardner filed a complaint that alleged Combs and his friend Aaron Hall had raped her in 1990; she later amended the suit, revealing that she was 16 at the time of the alleged assault.
A fourth woman, an unnamed plaintiff, then accused Combs of gang-raping her in 2003 when she was 17. According to the suit, Combs and two other men plied her with drugs and alcohol and then took turns raping her in a bathroom at a New York recording studio. A lawyer for the woman said in a statement that the “depravity of these acts” had “scarred” her for life.
In a statement after the fourth lawsuit was filed against him, Combs said: “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”
The most recent suit was filed against Combs in February by music producer Rodney Jones Jr. In the suit, Jones, who goes by Lil Rod, said the rapper “forcibly touched” his “intimate areas” while they worked on Combs’ album. Jones also accused the Bad Boy Records founder of forcing him to hire prostitutes and participate in sex acts with them, per the New York Times.
The following month, Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Florida were raided by federal agents. Homeland Security Investigations, the agency that conducted the search, has said little about its inquiry. A day after the raids, a lawyer for Combs called it an “unprecedented ambush” and said that “there has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations.”
Diddy’s former protégé slams his apology
After news of the raids broke, Aubrey O’Day, a member of Danity Kane — a girl group formed by Combs on the MTV show Making the Band — posted on Instagram: “Respectfully, I’ve been telling y’all this for 2 decades and did anyone listen? No.” Then following the release of the 2016 video, she posted on X: “the picture is getting a lot more clear for you all I can imagine.”
She also slammed his apology video, writing on X, “Diddy did not apologize to Cassie. He apologized to the world for seeing what we did.”
Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said in a statement: “The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs. Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
