Warning: This article contains discussion of domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
Cassie Ventura has spoken about a number of celebrities during her testimony at the trial of her ex-partner Sean 'Diddy' Combs.
Diddy faces charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, all of which he denies and has entered a plea of not guilty to.
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Ventura, who was dating Diddy on and off between 2007 and 2018, has been on the witness stand during the trial and as she has spoken she has mentioned the names of some celebrities.
Court officials expected this, as during jury selection, potential jurors were handed a list of almost 200 celebrities and asked to mark which ones they recognised.
That list includes some names which have not yet been mentioned at Diddy's trial, including the likes of Michael B. Jordan, Kanye West and Mike Myers, and it's not clear how they all relate to the trial. According to Variety, some of the celebrities on the list may not actually have anything to do with proceedings.
Kid Cudi
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Speaking in court yesterday (14 May), Cassie spoke of how Diddy lunged at her with a wine opener when he found out she was dating another man.
That other man turned out to be the rapper Kid Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi, and during her testimony she said that Combs also threatened to blow up Cudi's car.
CNN reported that Cassie told the court after Diddy lunged at her upon discovering she and Kid Cudi were dating she called Cudi on a burner phone and asked him to come and pick her up from a hotel where Diddy was holding one of his 'freak offs.'
She then said that she later tried to talk to Combs and he threatened to release videos of the 'freak offs', alleging: "He told me about videos that he had that he was going to release, and that he was going to hurt Scott and I."
Cassie testified that Diddy told her he wanted Kid Cudi's friends to see his car blown up on the driveway.
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On 9 January, 2012, a Porsche belonging to Kid Cudi was set on fire by an 'incendiary device.'
Ventura says that afterwards the three of them met up and when Cudi asked about the car Diddy said 'what vehicle?' and that she split up with Cudi after they'd been threatened by Combs.
"I had broken off the relationship with Scott Mescudi, too much uncertainty if we continued to see each other," she told the court.
Kim Porter
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During her first day of testimony, Cassie said that when she and Combs first started a physical relationship he was still with his former partner Kim Porter.
NBC reported that Cassie said she first had sex with Diddy on a trip to Miami where he gave her ecstasy and they began to spend more time together after that, but their relationship 'was not public for many years.'
"He just didn't want it to look bad, but also knew it was because of his children and personal things like his family," she told the court.
When asked who Combs was in a relationship with at the time, Cassie said 'Kim Porter.'
Combs and Porter were in an on and off relationship between 1994 and 2007, having a son and two daughters together.
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Five months before the birth of his twin daughters with Porter, Combs had a daughter born to another woman.
Porter died in 2018 at the age of 47 from lobar pneumonia.
Drake and French Montana
While describing the violence Diddy inflicted on her, Cassie spoke of an incident which required her to have plastic surgery.
She told the court that in 2013 she had been set to travel to OVO Fest, which was set up by Drake, and that the night before she was headed there, Diddy forced his way into her apartment and attacked her.
She said: "Sean came in. I was asleep. He was trying to attack me. We went into the master bedroom. My friends were jumping on his back trying to stop him.
"I cut my eyebrow on the corner of the bed. Sean threw me onto the bed frame. I had a significant gash. I didn't go to the ER; it was a Sunday. Sean had security take me to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills."
Cassie travelled to the festival the following day and Variety reports that she appeared at Drake's festival with her hair over one eye to conceal the injury.
The court was shown a photo of the injury, along with a text from Cassie to Combs saying she was sending the picture 'so you can remember.'
She also told the court about a photo she took with French Montana, a rapper whose real name is Karim Kharbouch.
Drake and French Montana have not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the Diddy trial.
Ike and Tina Turner
"Nothing good comes out of [freak offs] any more. You treat me like Ike Turner," Cassie wrote to Combs in a text message shown to the court that was sent on 7 January, 2017, as reported by People.
It was a reference to the relationship between Ike and Tina Turner, where he severely beat her for years before she left him.
Cassie has described to the court various injuries she suffered, claiming that Diddy would hurt her during the 'freak offs' and that she used makeup to cover up marks of the injuries she sustained.
She said: "He was abusive and controlling. He was physically abusive. He put me down a lot as much as I would be built up, the sheer embarrassment, how he treated me in front of other people."
Part of her testimony involved Ventura speaking about the video of an incident in a hotel in 2016 where video footage showed Diddy attacking her and she was 'thrown to the ground.'
Prince
Speaking to the court about another time Diddy used physical violence against her, Cassie said that she'd been to a party at Prince's house and didn't tell Combs she was going.
She described it as a 'a once in a lifetime experience' and feared that Combs 'would say no' if she told him about her plans to go there.
However, when she got to the party she spotted Combs there, testifying: "I caught a glimpse of him, left the party and ran out as fast as I could.
"I knew he was angry at me."
Ventura said that she could tell by Diddy's face that he was angry and 'then he came after me', describing how she ran away before falling into the bushes in Prince's garden as she tried to get away from Combs.
She told the court that she made it back to her hotel room, then claimed that Combs entered the room and 'beat me up.'
"We went into the bedroom and he beat me up. He threw luggage at me, calling me all kinds of names," Ventura alleged.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247, available 24/7, or via live chat, available 10am-10pm, Monday to Friday.
Alternatively, if you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: Cassie Ventura, Diddy, Celebrity, Crime, US News
Joe Harker