Diddy admits to assaulting Cassie in 2016 video, apologizes for ‘inexcusable’ actions
Sean “Diddy” Combs on Sunday apologized for brutally assaulting his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel in 2016 after a video of the alleged incident was unsurfaced by CNN last week.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you gotta do that. I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses,” Combs said in a video statement posted on Instagram. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
“I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he added. “I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry,” he continued.
It comes two days after CNN obtained and reported on a 2016 video of a man purported to be Combs brutally assaulting a woman, which CNN said was Cassie, whose real name is Cassandra Ventura. The surveillance video, taken inside the InterContinental Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles, shows multiple angles of Combs apparently grabbing, shoving and kicking Ventura.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, said last week the video “only further confirmed” Combs’s “disturbing and dangerous behavior.”
Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs late last year, alleging she experienced years of “abuse, violence and sex trafficking” while dating the rapper. Comb, at the time, denied the allegations and said, through his lawyer, that he had “been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
The suit settled a day after it was filed, per both parties.
In a statement shared by Wigdor, law partner Meredith Firetog wrote, “Combs’ most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt.”
“When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday,” Firetog continued. “That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words.”
In the video, the woman, purported to be Ventura, appears to leave a hotel room and walk towards the elevator. Combs is then seen running down the hallway after Ventura, grabbing her by the back of her neck and throwing her to the floor. He is next seen kicking her on the floor, per the video.
Combs then grabbed the purse and suitcase from the floor that Ventura was carrying before kicking her again. The video shows him briefly dragging her across the floor before apparently returning to the room. Ventura, who mostly remained motionless during the incident, is later seen standing up before collecting her items from the floor.
As Ventura goes to pick up a phone on the highway, the video shows Combs coming back. A mirror shown in the video appears to show Combs shoving Ventura. Moments later, Combs is seen sitting in a chair, where he throws an object in Ventura’s direction.
Since Ventura’s suit against the hip-hop artist late last year, he has faced further misconduct allegations from multiple people, including from a New York music producer, who accused him of sexually assaulting him and forcing him to have sex with prostitutes.
One woman accused the singer and two other men of raping her in 2003 when she was 17 years old in a lawsuit filed last December.
Another woman said Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her after a date and another accused the rapper and R&B singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting and beating her and a friend. Both women claimed the alleged incidents in 1991.
The hip-hop mogul’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided in March as part of a federal investigation into a sex trafficking probe in New York.
Updated at 5:44 pm.
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