Cassie Ventura testifies about ‘freak-offs’ with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in sex trafficking trial

The singer, who dated the music mogul for roughly a decade, is one of the prosecution’s key witnesses in the criminal case.

Cassie Ventura takes an oath before testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. Picture: Elizabeth Williams via AP

Cassie Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness in the sex-trafficking case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, told jurors Tuesday about taking part in weekly drug-fuelled sex parties as her yearslong relationship with the music mogul turned abusive.

Ventura, 38 years old, told jurors that she took part in her first “Freak Off” in Los Angeles at age 22, alongside Combs and a paid male escort. Combs choreographed every detail, she said, from her masquerade mask and platform shoes to the lighting and the sex acts she performed. She said she stayed awake for several days, fuelled by the drug molly, and willingly participated because she wanted to keep Combs happy.

“I felt disgusting,” she said. “I felt humiliated. I didn’t have those words together at the time, about how horrible I really felt.” “Were there parts you enjoyed?” a prosecutor asked. Ventura, breaking into tears, testified she enjoyed the one-on-one time with Combs. “It was the only time I could get,” she said.

Soft-spoken and visibly pregnant, Ventura at times rubbed her belly during her testimony. Picture: Elizabeth Williams via AP

Combs, 55, faces charges including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, running what prosecutors have described as a criminal enterprise that included kidnapping, arson and forcing his girlfriends to have sex with escorts. He has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for Combs have argued that Ventura and other women willingly participated in sex parties. Ventura and the other alleged victims were all strong, capable women “who made free choices every single day for years,” Teny Geragos, one of Combs’s lawyers, said during opening statements in New York federal court on Monday.

Ventura, one of the key accusers in the indictment, filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in 2023 accusing him of physical and mental abuse spanning roughly a decade. Ventura and Combs settled the suit the day after she filed it.

Sean Diddy Combs, left, stands as his defense attorney, Teny Geragos, gives her opening statement to the jury on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12. Picture: Elizabeth Williams via AP

During Tuesday’s testimony, Ventura told jurors how her roughly decadelong relationship with Combs, whom she called “Pop Pop” — the same name she called her grandfather — went from lovestruck to abusive.

She described how an uncomfortable kiss with Combs on her 21st birthday evolved into a consensual relationship involving sex, travel and the drug ecstasy. Prosecutors displayed photos of the couple, sometimes with arms around each other, on a boat, in a strip club and in a car.

“I was just enamoured by him. We were just having a good time,” said Ventura, who early in her career signed on to Combs’s Bad Boy Records. Soft-spoken and visibly pregnant, Ventura at times rubbed her belly during her testimony.

Ventura told jurors how her roughly decadelong relationship with Combs went from lovestruck to abusive. Picture: Denise Truscello/WireImage for Jet Nightclub, via Getty

Ventura said she soon realised Combs had a darker side. She said Combs expected her to be monogamous, despite the fact that he had sex with other women. He kept tabs on her location, she told the jury, and would incessantly call her or send his security to track her down. His staffers would take away her possessions, including her phone, when they sought to punish her.

“He was a scary person,” Ventura told the jury.

She said that fear prompted her to do anything Combs told her, including fulfilling his graphic sexual requests during Freak Offs. At one point she said she got into an inflatable pool filled with baby oil and lube.

“Why did you get into the pool of baby oil?” the prosecutor asked. “I couldn’t say no,” Ventura replied.

Combs’s lawyers are expected to question Ventura later this week.

Dow Jones