Sean Combs admits he assaulted ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura
‘My behaviour in that video is inexcusable,’ the rapper says of footage that captured 2016 altercation | Warning: Graphic
Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was seen shoving and kicking his former girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, on a recently-released video, issued an apology on Sunday, saying the 2016 footage caught him at “rock bottom.” “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life,” the 54-year-old entrepreneur and performer said on Instagram.
“My behaviour on that video is inexcusable.” The hotel security video, obtained and published Friday by CNN, shows Combs chasing Ventura as she heads down a hotel hallway carrying two small bags toward the elevator. Combs, with only a towel around his waist, pushes Ventura to the floor, kicks her twice, throws an object in her direction and attempts to drag her back to the hallway. The video is from March 2016.
Ventura described an incident that seems to match those events in a lawsuit she filed in November 2023 against Combs. She accused her ex-producer and former boyfriend of mental and physical abuse spanning roughly a decade. At the time, Combs denied Ventura’s accusations. The two settled the suit for an undisclosed amount the day after it was filed.
On Sunday, Combs said the 2016 video shows him at the darkest time in his life. “I was disgusted then, when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help,” he said in his social-media post. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.” An lawyer for Ventura said Combs’s apology only came because the hotel video surfaced.
It’s “more about himself than the many people he has hurt,” the lawyer said. At least two other women have filed their own civil lawsuits against Combs alleging past sexual abuse. In a statement from December, Combs said his accusers were seeking to tarnish his legacy. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” Combs said in a post on X at that time.
In March, federal agents raided a Los Angeles home connected to Combs and a home he owns in Miami. A federal official with knowledge of the investigation said at the time that it was related to possible human trafficking.
A lawyer for Combs said at the time that the raids were a “gross misuse” of force.
The Wall Street Journal
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