Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

After four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony Friday at the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Sean Combs.

On re-cross-examination, defense attorney Anna Estevao questioned whether Combs coerced Ventura into sexual activity as alleged, confronting her for a second time with some of her explicit text exchanges with Combs.

“You are actively participating in this sexting?” Estevao asked. “Mm hm,” Ventura responded.

Ventura also testified that she had reached the end of settlement discussions with the InterContinental Hotel, where she appeared on the 2016 video of Combs attacking her, and expected to receive $10 million, the first time the figure has been publicly revealed. She confirmed settlement negotiations concluded shortly before her testimony.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson asked Ventura, “Do you have any financial stake in the outcome of this trial?” Ventura responded quickly, “Absolutely not.”

After Ventura compared being Combs’ girlfriend to being “basically a sex worker” in prior testimony, Estevao on re-cross-examination highlighted what the defense argued were benefits of the relationship.

“Stand by his side at the Met Gala and premieres?” Estevao asked. “Yup,” Ventura answered.

“You were given opportunities in terms of your ability to access contacts in the entertainment industry?” Estevao asked. “Sometimes given but also earned,” Ventura responded.

On re-direct examination, prosecutors returned to an expletive-filled recording of Cassie Ventura, first played by the defense during cross-examination, during which she appeared to threaten to "kill" a man called Sugit who said he had seen a sexually explicit video of her.

"I was just sick about it and was feeling pressure from Sean," Ventura testified, referring to her reaction on the recording.

"Who directed you to talk to Sugit?" prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. "Sean," Ventura responded.

Ventura testified about a time on a flight home from France when she said Combs showed her a video of a "freak off" he had recorded on his phone.

"He said he was going to release the tape to embarrass me," Ventura testified.

Upon landing in New York, Ventura said there was a "freak off." She said she didn't want to partake in it but "feared he would release the video."

After maintaining her composure during the entirety of cross-examination, Cassie Ventura broke down in a loud sob when the prosecution asked whether Sean Combs beat her during "freak offs."

"Yes," she testified, then sobbed loudly.

"How did you feel during 'freak offs' when Sean beat you?" prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. "Worthless, just like dirt, that I didn't matter to him, like I was nothing," Ventura testified.

The tears began when Johnson asked whether she would give back the $20 million she received as part of her 2023 civil settlement with Combs if it meant not having to have ever participated in a "freak off."

"I'd give that money back if I never had to do 'freak offs.' I would have agency and autonomy," she said through tears. She reached for a tissue and dabbed her eyes. "I wouldn't have had to work so hard to get it back."

Redirect examination has concluded, as re-cross-examination starts now.

After the defense pointed to what they argued were benefits Cassie Ventura received during her relationship with Combs, Ventura said under re-direct examination her music career suffered.

“I had to give him all of my attention and made the choice to listen to him because he was the person that was running everything,” Ventura testified. “When I wasn’t working I was his girlfriend.”

Prosecutors suggested she did not have the kind of agency the defense argued.

Ventura said she could not work on herself because she had another job.

“What was that job?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. “Basically a sex worker,” Ventura responded, prompting a sustained objection from the defense.

After the defense tried to depict Ventura as a willing participant in so-called "freak offs," Ventura suggested she did not want to have sex with male prostitutes.

“Throughout your entire 11-year relationship with Sean, who did you want to have sex with?” Johnson asked. “I wanted to have sex just with him,” Ventura said.

The cross-examination of Cassie Ventura concluded with a 2012 text exchange in which Sean Combs asked Ventura if she wanted to "have a 'freak off' one last time."

Her response said she wanted to "'freak off" for "the first time for the rest of our lives"

Prosecutor Emily Johnson immediately showed the exchange on re-direct examination as part of a longer thread in which Ventura expressed different feelings about "freak offs."

The defense again attempted to portray Ventura as a willing, even eager, participant in the kind of sexual lifestyle Combs wanted.

The defense also asked Ventura about her Instagram post after CNN first aired the 2016 hotel surveillance video depicting Combs attacking her near an elevator.

"Domestic violence is the issue and it's an important issue," Ventura posted in part on May 23, 2024. "My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in," the post continued.

"That's what you focused on in your Instagram post?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. "There was more to it but yeah," Ventura replied.

The defense has argued that Ventura may have been a victim of domestic violence, but she was not a victim of sex trafficking.

The defense has also argued Ventura is motivated by money and pointed out she canceled an Australian and New Zealand tour after settling her 2023 civil lawsuit.

"You saw you would get $20 million and you canceled," Estevao said. "That wasn't the reason why," Ventura testified.