Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys hit back at Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s emotional testimony with a scathing cross-examination Thursday.
Anna Estevao, who is part of a stacked defense counsel for the disgraced rap mogul, began her line of questioning by asking the “Me & U” singer on why she “kept coming back” during the 11-year relationship.
She then asked Ventura to read aloud a series of texts the singer sent her now-ex, including one that read, “I’m a very lucky woman” and another that tried paint the songstress as needy: “I haven’t talked to you AT ALL, I know you can take 3 minutes out of your day to talk to me and you don’t even try.”
However, the temperature in the courtroom heated up when Estevao began to press Ventura on another text in which she said, “I’m always ready to freak off lol” and shared a series of racy messages from her.
“I can’t wait to stare at some big black d–k” Ventura wrote to Combs on Aug. 7, 2009.
However, it was a second explicit text that she wrote later that day, in which she graphically described what she couldn’t “wait” for her then-boyfriend to do her, that finally pushed her over the edge.
Ventura immediately asked the judge for a break after the raunchy text was read. The singer — who is eight months pregnant — was seen grabbing her belly with both her hands at this time.
Her husband, Alex Fine — who is the father of her three children, was present inside the courtroom.
Leading up to the trial, Reuters reported that the lead attorney on the case, Marc Agnifilo, planned to smear Ventura’s reputation by claiming she and Combs were in a “mutually violent” relationship.
“I think we’re probably going to refer to that as domestic violence,” Agnifilo said during a jury selection hearing in Manhattan federal court last week.
Despite the defense team’s attempts to hurt Ventura’s credibility, the “Numb” singer — who is expecting her third child with Fine — firmly took the stand Tuesday for more than five hours.
Throughout her bombshell testimony, Ventura, 38, recounted horrific and graphic details of her decade-long relationship with Combs, 55, which took place from 2007 to 2018.
She testified about his often unpredictable behavior and how he would hit her for simply making “the wrong face” or talking back to him.
The “Long Way 2 Go” singer, who is eight months pregnant, broke down in tears recalling how her ex would “just become a different person.”
“The best way to describe it is his eyes just go black,” she testified. “The version that I was in love with is no longer there.”
As evidence of the abuse, the feds released the full-length video and never-before-seen photos of a shocking domestic violence incident in which Combs physically assaulted Ventura at a hotel in 2016.
The songstress talked for the first time about what happened earlier that day, sharing that the former couple had just taken part in a “Freak-Off” with an escort.
Ventura claimed Combs introduced her to his “Freak-Off” sessions, in which he required her to have sex with an escort or dancer from Craigslist, when she was just 22 years old. He allegedly viewed it as “voyeurism,” which is when a person gets turned on by watching two other individuals be intimate.
She claimed the “Freak-Offs” occurred “weekly” throughout most of their relationship, entailed her calling her then-boyfriend an incestuous nickname, being on multiple drugs and at times bathing herself in an inflatable pool of oil and lube ahead of performing sex acts on Combs and the escort or dancer.
The “King of Hearts” singer alleged on the stand that the longest romp lasted four days “or maybe even more.” She also shared that she often suffered “painful” medical issues as a result of the “Freak-Offs,” including stomach problems, urinary tract infections and sores on her tongue and mouth.
Despite all of the trauma that Combs put her through, Ventura said there was “still love” at times. However, when she did want to leave the relationship, the former “Making the Band” producer would allegedly “blackmail” her and threaten to release intimate photos and videos of her.
The “Love a Loser” singer testified that she did eventually break up with the “Last Night” rapper in 2018, which allegedly led him to rape her, leaving her suicidal.
“I was spinning out,” she said on the stand Wednesday. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point.”
Ventura eventually sued Combs for rape in November 2023, and they settled within 24 hours. The Bad Boy Records founder claimed the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing, though.
The “Don’t Play It Safe” singer revealed for the first time during her testimony Wednesday that Combs “and his companies” paid her a whopping $20 million as part of their settlement.
His attorney Teny Geragos told the jury in opening statements Tuesday, “Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.”
The “All About the Benjamins” rapper — who has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution — faces up to life in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
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