Cassie showed up in court today to talk about her time with Diddy, sharing some really tough stories.
When Cassie got asked questions, she explained how her relationship with Diddy was filled with arguments that would often turn into physical harm, and she said he had a lot of control over her daily life. She talked about how she felt at the beginning, saying, “I just knew that he was this larger-than-life entrepreneur, musician. Was a fan of the music. I didn’t know too much about him personally.” She also said, “I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time. He was just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have, you know, my career in his hands.”
The trial has focused on something called “freak-offs,” which Cassie said meant Diddy would hire escorts and set up situations where she had to perform for him. She described these events as lasting anywhere from a day and a half to four days, and said, “The freak-offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again.” She also explained that Diddy or his security would bring money to pay the escorts.
Fans think it’s really hard to imagine going through all of that.
She had already taken Diddy to court last November, accusing him of hurting her both physically and sexually, but that lawsuit was settled super quickly. Even so, Cassie’s choice to speak out made a lot of other people share their stories about Diddy, and it pushed the government to start looking into him for bigger crimes like racketeering and sex trafficking.
This trial started on May 12 and should go on for about two months. At the start, the prosecutor Emily A. Johnson said Diddy had a group of bodyguards and important workers who helped him do bad things and hide them. Diddy’s lawyers argued that what he did wasn’t sex trafficking. On the first day, Daniel Phillip said Diddy paid him to have sex with Cassie, and that he saw Diddy be violent toward her.
If you or someone you care about needs help with sexual assault or domestic abuse, please reach out:
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
https://rainn.org
1 800 656 HOPE (4673)
Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741
The National Domestic Violence Hotline
https://thehotline.org
1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
