Former Combs girlfriend describes a life of sex, drugs and beatings

NEW YORK — Sean Combs’ former girlfriend, the singer known as Cassie, testified on Tuesday that the music mogul beat her, fed her drugs and obsessed over her looks and her whereabouts as she depicted a predatory control freak who forced her to spend sleepless days having sex with prostitutes.

The criminal trial of Combs, the once all-powerful music executive, reached a crucial phase with the testimony of Casandra Ventura, a musician and model whose troubled and complex relationship with Combs is at the heart of the government’s case.

Ventura told the jury in a packed Manhattan courthouse that in the early phase of their relationship she had been in love with Combs, who was also her record label boss and steered her career. But their romance soon veered into severe violence at the hands of Combs, she said, recounting swollen lips, black eyes and “bruises all over my body.”

Ventura described first meeting Combs as a budding singer, but said that ultimately she was relegated to being a performer in sexual encounters, or “freak-offs” as Combs called them, that in one case lasted 72 hours.

Emily A. Johnson, a prosecutor handling the case, asked Ventura how she was able to stay awake during such sessions. “The drugs helped,” she replied. Combs provided her with ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, ketamine and mushrooms, she said.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges and his defense team has presented the government’s case as an effort to criminalize consensual, if unconventional, sexual encounters among adults.

Her testimony, which may last through the end of the week, depicted an extreme lifestyle made possible by enormous wealth and copious drugs and driven by Combs’ deep appetites and obsession with running the show.

“Something that Sean wanted to happen, that’s what was going to happen,” Ventura said.

Prosecutors are seeking to prove that, beyond racketeering, Combs also engaged in sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. At the core of the racketeering charge is the contention that Combs dispatched his staff to abet his behavior and cover it up when it risked becoming public.

Combs, who during his 3 1/2-decade career played a major role in making hip-hop a global cultural force, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

Defense lawyers on Monday acknowledged that Combs could be ill-tempered and violent, but rejected any suggestion that his behavior amounted to running a racketeering enterprise.

“This case is about Sean Combs’ private, personal sex life, which has nothing to do with his lawful businesses,” Teny Geragos, one of Combs’ attorneys, said in her opening statement Monday.

“This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos said. “This case is about voluntary, adult choices made by capable adults and consensual relationships.”

In the first minutes of her testimony on Tuesday, Ventura was asked by prosecutors to describe the more than decade-long relationship she had with Combs.

“I just knew that he was this larger-than-life entrepreneur, musician,” she said. Ventura said she was a fan but that she “didn’t know too much about him personally.” Soon after, she signed a 10-album deal with his label, Bad Boy. At that time, she said, their relationship was still “platonic.”

“I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time,” she testified. “He was just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have, you know, my career in his hands.”

Their relationship soon became sexual. Ventura described her first experiences with freak-offs, the drug-fueled sexual encounters with male prostitutes that the government contends were coerced. She said those events caused her “nervousness and confusion.” She did not understand how they could be a turn-on, she said, but felt a “responsibility” to please Combs. “I was confused, nervous, but also loved him very much,” she said.

Later she said, “Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much.”

In court, Ventura, 38, wore a brown turtleneck dress that accentuated her pregnant belly. She has been married since 2019 to Alex Fine, the former personal trainer to both her and Combs. As she entered the courtroom, Combs turned back in his chair to see her walk in; Ventura stared straight ahead. Combs’ lawyers had asked to have her present on the stand before the jury entered, a request that the judge apparently denied.

As she testified, Ventura was soft-spoken and visibly emotional, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. She recounted meeting Combs around 2005, when she was 19.

The much-anticipated testimony on Tuesday was Ventura’s first major public comment since she filed a bombshell lawsuit against Combs in late 2023, in which she accused him of having instituted a system of abuse and control over her life and career for more than a decade. Combs and Ventura quickly reached an eight-figure settlement in the civil case, which led to a government investigation and Combs’ arrest in September 2024.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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