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

The defense introduced scores of text messages during the cross-examination that contain a mix of affection, sexually-charged banter, domestic negotiation and bickering.

The defense has attempted to demonstrate that those messages show Ventura’s agency in a relationship that she described on direct examination as colored by Sean Combs’ alleged control, threats and beatings.

In one exchange the defense pointed to, Ventura texted, “Freak off w/a girl” and Combs responded, “What makes you wanna do that”

Defense attorney Anna Estevao asked, “You were suggesting a freak off with a girl?”

Ventura responded flatly, “That’s what it says.”

“That’s what you were suggesting at the time?” Estevao followed up. “That’s what I was suggesting,” Ventura replied.

Estevao said the exchange followed an earlier conversation between Ventura and Combs about getting their relationship “to a good place.”

The defense also appeared to question Ventura’s recollection of when an alleged rape occurred, suggesting she switched the date from September 2018 to August 2018.

Around that time, Ventura received a message from Combs saying, “I know I look bad to you. I could tell I didn’t turn you on yesterday. I fell off. I’m about to get my s--- together.”

Ventura had previously testified on Wednesday that Combs allegedly raped her in her living in room in 2018. Combs and Ventura broke up the same year.

Cassie Ventura testified she has been taking Suboxone, a treatment for opiate addiction since 2022.

In 2023, she attended a 45-day in-patient treatment program in Arizona that included neuro-feedback therapy and EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a psychotherapy technique meant to help process distressing memories, according to her testimony.

“You understood that you were being treated for PTSD?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “Yes,” Ventura testified. She denied being treated for sex or love addiction, which the facility also offers.

The testimony has been interrupted by calls for conferrals between the parties.

The judge called a recess to remind the defense of his rules and to impose new ones.

The jury heard a dramatic recording of a March 2014 conversation in Atlantic City between Cassie Ventura and a man called Sugit, who claimed he had seen her in a sexually explicit video taken during a "freak off."

“Tell me what exactly you saw,” Ventura is heard telling Sugit. “You told me somebody else was in there f------ me.”

A moment later her voice is heard rising.

“You have it? Why didn’t you show me?” Ventura said. “Because I’m not disrespectful,” Sugit is heard answering meekly.

“You’ve had it the whole time?” Ventura said. “It’s my f------- life and I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you if you don’t show me. Pull it up. If you have it pull that s--- up or I’m going to kill you!”

Ventura is heard telling Sugit, “We’re staying here until you show me that s---. I’m going to kill you I don’t give a f---. I’ll kill you because you’re f------ with me!”

Ventura testified about another time she said she became concerned about a sex tape, one taken by one of the male escorts who participated in a "freak off."

“I was in the room with him and I saw the phone up so I told Sean about it after,” Ventura testified,

“You were concerned he was recording?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “Yes,” Ventura answered.

“What happened when you told Mr. Combs your suspicion?” Estevao asked. “He said, ‘I’ll take care of it,’” Ventura responded.

Ventura testified she also grew concerned that some of the male escorts hired for "freak offs" were participating in a reality television show featuring the escort service she said she and Combs used.

Cassie Ventura testified about a time in August 2016 when she and Sean Combs were in a car and he allegedly swiped her phone from her hand, jumped from the vehicle and ran down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“Right before my 30th birthday, I think, and I was dating someone else and I’m not sure how he found out,” she testified. “He grabbed my phone and ran out of the car.”

When she returned home without her phone, Ventura said her mother called the police. Ventura said she did not know how Combs found out she was seeing the other person, whom she said was an NFL player.

“Mr. Combs was insanely jealous?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “He was upset with you when he suspected you of cheating?”

Ventura responded, “When I was with anyone else. I don’t know if I would call it cheating”

Estevao said, “You understood he thought it cheating.”

Ventura responded, “That’s a technicality. We weren’t married.”

The defense has been highlighting episodes of infidelity and jealousy that plagued their relationship.

Estevao asked about another instance of jealousy: “He found out that you were dancing with another person in the entertainment industry and took your phone?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Ventura responded.

“You remember the occasion when he suspected you of dancing with Chris Brown?” Estevao asked, referring to the R&B singer.

Ventura said that she remembered Combs being upset but she denied dancing with Brown.