CNN
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Cassie Ventura is writing her personal track now.
The “Me & U” singer regained management of her story when she first detailed years of disturbing abuse allegations in a lawsuit filed in opposition to her ex-boyfriend and former producer Sean “Diddy” Combs final November.
Whereas her criticism was shortly settled, the cloud round Combs solely grew.
“Mr. Combs‘ choice to settle the lawsuit doesn’t in any manner undermine his flat-out denial of the claims,” Combs’ legal professional stated on the time.
A minimum of 9 different civil lawsuits and a federal investigation adopted. Then on Tuesday, Combs was charged with racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking in a federal indictment that alleges he “abused, threatened and coerced victims” from at the least 2008 to the current. Combs has pleaded not responsible.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Ventura for touch upon Combs’ prison indictment, which can not have occurred had she not had the braveness to share her account.
Born Casandra Elizabeth Ventura in New London, Connecticut in August 1986, Ventura started her profession in leisure as a mannequin. She linked with producer and songwriter Ryan Leslie and went on to launch her debut album in 2006.
Ventura shortly turned a wanted star. Her expertise and sweetness attracted the eye of Combs, who signed Ventura to his Dangerous Boy Leisure label.
In a 2006 interview, Ventura talked about how her household was responding to her new-found fame.
“It occurred so quick I don’t suppose anybody may sluggish it down,” she stated on the time. “They all the time need to be sure that I’m glad and all the things is okay. It’s extra about if I’m glad and content material with what I’m doing.”
The next yr, Ventura turned a spokesmodel for Combs’s vogue line Sean John. She leaned into performing in addition to music, showing within the dance movie “Step Up 2: The Streets” and contributing a track to the film’s soundtrack.
Ventura launched different singles, together with “Official Woman,” that includes rapper Lil Wayne in 2008, and “Should Be Love,” that includes Combs performing below one in every of his skilled monikers, Puff Daddy, in 2009.
Ventura and Combs first went public with their romantic relationship in 2012 and had been quickly regulars at vogue exhibits and Hollywood events.
“Simply being round him is a totally inspiring expertise,” she told Madam Noire about Combs in 2013. “Beginning my very own empire can be nice.”
Whereas she would launch extra singles, together with 2017’s “Don’t Play It Secure” which Pitchfork deemed “her greatest observe in almost half a decade and arguably her correct comeback,” an anticipated album produced by Combs – and her personal “empire” – by no means got here to go.
Bother and a brand new starting
Regardless of engagement hypothesis in 2014, the pair had been by no means set to wed. Combs defined his relationship philosophy to the New York-based radio present “The Breakfast Membership.
“If I’m in a relationship with you, like 25 p.c of your time, you’re gonna simply really feel like, ‘Aw man, I hate being right here, this man, aw man, he cheated on me, he lied on me.’ That’s 25 p.c,” he said in 2015. “However then there’s 75 p.c of I’mma make you the happiest lady in the entire large world. I’mma be there to help your desires. I’mma there to carry you, take heed to you. I’m going to be there to be your greatest good friend and I promise you’ll smile probably the most.”
In her lawsuit, Ventura painted a darkish image of a relationship that appeared golden in public. Behind closed doorways, she alleged, Combs managed all elements of her private life, pressured her to have interaction in intercourse acts with different males and “launched” her to a way of life of “extreme alcohol and substance abuse.”
When Ventura tried to finish her relationship with Combs in 2018, she alleged that he pressured his manner into her house and raped her. Combs has denied her allegations.
Ventura, in response to her criticism, nonetheless suffers from “immense emotional misery” and at one level she checked into an inpatient rehabilitation middle after having suicidal ideas she linked to abuse.
She has gone on to marry coach Alex Nice, with whom she shares two daughters.
When Combs was offered with a lifetime achievement recognition on the BET Awards in 2022, he referenced Ventura in his acceptance speech.
“I’mma hold it 100 with y’all, I used to be in a darkish place for a number of years,” Combs stated on stage earlier than thanking “Cassie for holding me down at the hours of darkness occasions. Love.”
Ventura filed her criticism because the New York Grownup Survivors Act, which briefly eradicated the civil statute of limitations for survivors of sexual assault, was expiring.
“After years in silence and darkness, I’m lastly prepared to inform my story, and to talk up on behalf of myself and for the advantage of different girls who face violence and abuse of their relationships,” Ventura stated in an announcement to CNN final yr. “With the expiration of New York’s Grownup Survivors Act quick approaching, it turned clear that this was a possibility to talk up in regards to the trauma I’ve skilled and that I will probably be recovering from for the remainder of my life.”
Not everybody believed her.
“We will’t simply actually go off of he-say, she-say… It’s robust to see so many individuals need to see him [Combs] crash out like this,” rapper Slim Thug stated on the time. “I don’t need to see a Black man who got here thus far, nearly to a billion {dollars}, fall down.”
In Could, when CNN published a surveillance video that confirmed Combs bodily abusing Ventura in 2016 in a Los Angeles lodge, public opinion about Ventura’s claims modified.
“I used to be disgusted then after I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out skilled assist. I received into going to remedy, going to rehab,” Combs stated in a video shared on social media days after the video was broadcast. “I needed to ask God for his mercy and charm. I’m so sorry. However I’m dedicated to be a greater man every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m actually sorry.”
Ventura thanked her supporters and turned her focus to home violence survivors.
“Home Violence is THE subject. It broke me right down to somebody I by no means thought I’d turn into,” she stated. “With a whole lot of arduous work, I’m higher as we speak, however I’ll all the time be recovering from my previous.”
“My solely ask is that EVERYONE open your coronary heart to believing victims the primary time,” she added. “It takes a whole lot of coronary heart to inform the reality out of a state of affairs that you just had been powerless in.”
She is powerless no extra.