They were photographed in 2016 attending the premiere of the film The Perfect Match, only two days after Combs beat and kicked Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel – an attack captured on security camera footage. After the footage was leaked last year, Combs apologised. Jurors were shown that footage as well as photos of the couple at the premier.
Cassie, now 38, calm and poised after an emotional first day of testimony, said she used makeup to cover bruises and wore sunglasses to hide a black eye for the premiere. She said she sneaked into a popcorn closet at the movie theatre to switch dresses for an after party so bruises on her legs wouldn’t be visible.
On another occasion in 2013, while she was packing to go to Drake’s music festival in Canada, Cassie said Combs scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame. She sustained a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye. Combs’ security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up, she said.
Afterward, she said she texted Combs a photo of her injured face and wrote: “So you can remember.” Combs replied: “You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
COMBS ACCUSED OF A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Cassie testified about several other violent episodes. Early in their relationship in 2007, she said he repeatedly hit her and knocked her to the floor of a vehicle with a blow to her head. In 2011, when he learned she started dating rapper Kid Cudi, she said Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back.
After the 2011 attack, she said she lied to her mother at Christmas that it was the first time Combs hit her.
“I couldn’t hurt her like that,” Cassie testified. “And it was terrifying. It’s not normal, constantly being bruised up by the person you love – who says they love you.”
Cassie also testified that she saw Combs pull one of her friends back over the railing of a balcony in Los Angeles. She said she saw him hit a different friend of hers in the head with a hammer.
Cassie said she was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder before ending her relationship with Combs in 2018, and was blacking out and sleepwalking.
CASSIE SAYS SHE HAD A BREAKDOWN IN 2023
Cassie testified that her life reached a climactic moment in early 2023 when she had “horrible flashbacks” as she was shooting a music video. She said she went home after the video shoot and her two kids were asleep but her husband was there. Cassie said she remembered “telling him you can do this without me. You don’t need me here anymore”.
With that, Cassie said she couldn’t take the pain anymore and “tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me”. Weeks later, she was undergoing rehab and trauma therapy.
Asked why she’s testifying at Combs’ criminal trial, she said: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt.”
