Cassie's Heartbreaking Text to Diddy Days After Hotel Beating Is Read Aloud in Court

Days after Sean “Diddy” Combs viciously beat his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a hotel lobby in 2016, she wrote him a heartbreaking message. 

The incident, in which Combs chased down Ventura, shoved her to the ground, kicked her as she lay motionless, and then dragged her down a hallway at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, has become key evidence in the prosecution’s sex-trafficking case against him.

Ventura, who was Combs’ on-again, off-again girlfriend for 11 years, was in court on Friday, May 16, for the fourth day of her testimony in Combs’ trial. 

In text exchanges read aloud in court during cross-examination, the jury got a glimpse of Ventura’s state of mind days after the incident, which was caught on hotel security camera and published by CNN in May 2024.

On March 10, 2016, five days after the attack that Combs has since apologized for, Ventura wrote, “When you get f—ed up the wrong way you always want to show me that you have the power and you knock me around.”

She added: “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”

Ventura testified earlier in the week that the assault took place as she was trying to leave a “Freak Offs” session — sex encounters where she alleges Combs forced her into sexual acts with other men, often while she was on drugs, which he then recorded to keep as what he allegedly called “blackmail material.” 

Friday marked the end of the first week of Combs’ trial, with two witnesses other than Ventura: a male escort who was involved in a “Freak Offs” session and a security guard who responded to Combs’ room after the assault in the hotel lobby.

Both men testified they witnessed Ventura reeling from Combs’ alleged abuse immediately after the respective alleged assaults.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.