Artist Casandra Ventura, who was the girlfriend of rapper and businessman Sean Combs – known as Puff Daddy, Diddy and even Love – has filed a damages lawsuit against him, accusing him of systematically raping and physically abusing her in the process The entire relationship lasted on and off for 13 years, from 2005 to 2018. Cassie, as the singer and model are called, reported the rapper in federal court in Manhattan. The Harlem-born, 54-year-old artist and businessman, who is one of the most famous musicians in the rap world, has sold more than seven million records, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and three Grammy Awards, has those against him The allegations have been rejected and are accused of rape, sexual abuse, sexual assault and sex trafficking, as these took place in different cities.
In the lawsuit – accessed by media outlets including The New York Times and Page Six – Ventura alleges that Combs tried to control her and physically abused her since their relationship began in 2005, when she was 19 He abused her and forced her to take drugs and have sexual relations with prostitutes he had hired and with whom he took her up. In 2018, according to Ventura’s version, when they were on the verge of ending the relationship, he raped her. Additionally, the court documents state that Combs was “prone to fits of uncontrollable rage and would often brutally beat Ventura,” and in fact he recounts several of them, during which he left her bloodied and bruised. As Casandra Ventura explains in her lawsuit, the beatings usually occurred with Combs’ workers as witnesses, although “no one dared to raise their voices for fear of his ferocious boss.” Among the consequences of their relationship, according to Cassie’s lawyers, their isolation from their support network. “Ms. Ventura felt that saying no to Mr. Combs would cost her something: her family, her friends, her career, even her life.”
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The lawsuit, very harsh and full of details, tells what the life was like that Ventura was subjected to for 13 years, with details such as that the rapper beat her “several times a year” and forced her to carry his gun Her bag. to “remind you of the possibility of causing serious harm.” “Over the years, Combs physically and sexually abused Ventura as she repeatedly tried to escape the tight control he had over her life,” it says the documents. She never went to the police because she feared it would “just give Combs another excuse to hurt her again.”
The rapper is also the owner of a record label, Bad Boy Records, with which she signed her first contract in 2006, so she was linked to him in business. “Each time she went into hiding, Combs’ extensive network of affiliates and entities found her, and those who worked for his companies begged her to return to him,” the lawsuit says. The artist’s collaborators often helped him control the singer by threatening her with the disappearance of her music if she disobeyed them or did not behave the way the rapper wanted: “Many came to do this to her say if she didn’t go back to him.” “Her career would be ruined.” It would be over in the entertainment industry.” Now she has sued Combs, but also several of his affiliated companies.
Cassie and Sean Combs at the Met Gala on May 1, 2017 in New York. John Lamparski (Getty Images)
Since they began dating around 2005, Cassie began to recognize the New Yorker’s eccentric and luxurious lifestyle and began to notice the control he wanted to exert over her life. According to the lawsuit, he controlled her career and paid for her living expenses, cars and clothing, and even had access to her medical records; The results of his medical tests went directly to Combs. He gave her “a huge amount of drugs” including ketamine and ecstasy and forced her to take them. The beating was constant. In the lawsuit, the singer recalls a 2009 episode in Los Angeles in which the rapper, after seeing her chatting with a talent agent, pushed her, put her in the car and kicked her in the face until she bled. Then her staff had to take her to the hotel, where she spent a week recovering. She wanted to go with her parents, but he didn’t allow her. It also tells of another episode that occurred in 2016 at a hotel in the same city in California. Drugged, he punched him in the face and gave him a black eye. When he fell asleep, she tried to escape the room, but he woke up, followed her down the hallway, and threw glass vases at her. Security cameras filmed the incident; He paid $50,000 for the recording.
One of Combs’ fantasies, which he acted out with his girlfriend, was voyeurism. According to the lawsuit, he made her have sex with prostitutes – which she had to look up on websites herself – while he watched and masturbated, taking photos and videos of all of them, often dressed in masks, costumes and lingerie, and during which she forced Ventura, Taking drugs, which, she explains, partly allowed her “not to think during these terrible encounters.” He did it for years in luxury hotels and in his own homes; Therefore, there is also a demand for sex trafficking. When he recorded the videos on his girlfriend’s cell phone, she deleted them, but he often restored them. He once let him watch one during a flight.
The last episode between them was the rape at her house in 2018, which took place after a dinner where she wanted to break up with him. “She asked him to stop and tried to push him. “Combs forcibly removed her clothing, unbuckled her belt and raped her while she repeatedly said no and tried to push him away.” That was the end. Cassie managed to let him down. In 2019, the same year she left the Bad Boy record label, she married Alex Fine, her personal trainer, and they had two daughters. Combs, for his part, has seven children from various relationships, none of them with Ventura. He is now in an open relationship with rapper Yung Miami.
The artist Cassie at a party organized by Sean Combs with his alcohol brands on New Year’s Eve 2017 in Miami. Shareif Ziyadat (Getty Images for Deleon Tequila)
The lawsuit also affects third parties. It suggests that Combs was responsible for exploding the car of one of her rivals, rapper Kid Cudi, whom she was dating in early 2012. The rapper himself supported this version through his spokesman. A friend from Ventura also hung from the 17th floor balcony of a hotel.
“After years of silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story and speak loud and clear, both for myself and for the sake of other women who have experienced violence and abuse in their relationships,” Cassie wrote now 37 years old, in a statement to the media.
Casandra Ventura’s lawyers claim that both parties spoke before the lawsuit and that he offered her “an eight-figure sum,” or at least $10 million, “to buy her silence and avoid this lawsuit,” which she declined . Combs’ lawyers also spoke out and “vehemently denied the offensive and outrageous allegations.” “Mr. Combs has been the subject of a persistent $30 million lawsuit from Ms. Ventura over the past six months, threatening the publication of a damaging book about their relationship, which has been flatly rejected as amounting to blatant blackmail.” Although Ms After Ventura withdrew her original threat, she has now launched a lawsuit filled with baseless and scandalous lies in an attempt to damage Mr. Combs’ reputation and obtain a check.
The 54-year-old rapper became one of the hip-hop scene’s most famous figures in the 1990s and 2000s and, according to the New York Times, which describes him as “the most famous music manager of his generation” – his net worth is around $1 billion , around 920 million euros. Last year alone he earned $90 million (83 million euros), and five years ago his music earned him $100 million a year, making him the highest-paid in the industry. He owes much of his income to his collaboration with alcohol giant Diageo, with whom he has promoted a vodka brand for 15 years and also runs a tequila brand with DeLeon. They parted ways last summer after Combs sued her for racism.
In 2017, Combs had already filed a sexual harassment lawsuit, although not on the same scale as the current one. His former cook, a woman named Cindy Rueda, accused him in a Los Angeles court of not only making her work 16 hours a day, but also forcing her to serve him food after the singer had sexual relationships with other women had and continued naked as he walked. When she complained, she was fired. In February 2019, they agreed on an economic settlement.