CNN
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Cassie Ventura has shared a statement expressing her gratitude for the help she has obtained since CNN’s publication of a 2016 surveillance video that confirmed her being bodily assaulted by her then-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“Thanks for the entire love and help from my household, pals, strangers and people I’ve but to fulfill,” Ventura wrote in a submit shared on Instagram. “The outpouring of affection has created a spot for my youthful self to settle and really feel secure now, however that is solely the start.”
Ventura continued, “Home Violence is THE difficulty. It broke me all the way down to somebody I by no means thought I’d change into. With a number of laborious work, I’m higher immediately, however I’ll all the time be recovering from my previous.”
She then turned her focus to hunt help for others.
“My solely ask is that EVERYONE open your coronary heart to believing victims the primary time. It takes a number of coronary heart to inform the reality out of a scenario that you simply have been powerless in,” Ventura wrote. “I supply my hand to people who are nonetheless residing in concern. Attain out to your folks, don’t minimize them off. Nobody ought to carry this weight alone.”
“This therapeutic journey isn’t ending, however this help means every thing to me,” she concluded her message.
Combs and Ventura dated on and off from 2007 to 2018. In her criticism that was settled inside a day of its submitting in November 2023, Ventura alleged Combs raped her in 2018 and subjected her to years of repeated bodily and different abuses over the course of their relationship.
Combs has denied her allegations.
“A call to settle a lawsuit, particularly in 2023, is by no means an admission of wrongdoing,” Ben Brafman, an lawyer for Combs, informed CNN in a press release in November. “Mr. Combs‘ choice to settle the lawsuit doesn’t in any manner undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He’s joyful they obtained to a mutual settlement and needs Ms. Ventura one of the best.”
Combs apologized on Sunday for his actions within the surveillance video.
‘I take full duty’: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs reacts to 2016 video exhibiting him assaulting then-girlfriend
Ventura’s lawyer Meredith Firetog criticized his response.
“When Cassie and a number of different ladies got here ahead, he denied every thing and prompt that his victims have been searching for a payday,” she in a press release to CNN.
Ventura and Combs didn’t title one another of their respective statements. Their November settlement states that neither of them can discuss one another in any manner, based on a number of sources acquainted with the settlement.
Together with Ventura’s lawsuit, Combs has been named in seven civil lawsuits in current months. Six of these lawsuits, together with one filed Tuesday, comprise allegations of sexual assault. One of many six fits names Combs as a defendant however was introduced in opposition to Combs’ son, Christian Combs. Solely Ventura’s has been settled.
Authorities searched Diddy’s homes on March 25, 2024, as a result of he’s a goal of a federal investigation carried out by a Division of Homeland Safety staff that handles human trafficking and different crimes, based on a senior federal regulation enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
The investigation stems from most of the identical sexual assault allegations put forth within the civil lawsuits, based on a second regulation enforcement supply acquainted with the searches.
Combs and his attorneys have denied the allegations. Six lawsuits stay lively.
CNN’s Sandra Gonzalez, Alli Rosenbloom and Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this story.