Casandra “Cassie” Ventura has broken her silence following the CNN release of a 2016 video showing her being physically abused by her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs.
While thanking her fans for their love and support, Ventura said in a shared that the domestic violence she endured in the past “broke me down to someone I never thought I would become.”
“With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past. Thank you for all of the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those I have yet to meet. The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning,” Ventura adds. “Domestic Violence is THE issue.”
In the footage, captured by surveillance cameras in March 2016, a man identified as Combs runs behind a woman, identified as Ventura, near an elevator. He then grabs her and throws her onto the ground. Combs then appears to kick Ventura twice and drags her by her hooded sweatshirt on the ground.
Shortly after, Combs is seen throwing a glass vase at Ventura.
Combs posted a video apology via his Instagram page shortly after the video went viral.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you gotta do that. I was f—ed up. I mean I hit rock bottom but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” he said. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.
On Dec. 6, weeks after Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs for rape and physical assault, Combs denied all of the allegations made against him.
“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” he wrote in the statement. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.”
Combs claimed he has been working on his relationship with God and even went to rehab to change his behavior.
This week, a former model Combs of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed in New York. Model Crystal McKinney alleges that in 2003, Combs assaulted her at his music studio after a Men’s Fashion Week dinner.
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McKinney says she was just 22 years old when she met. He invited her back to his New York City studio, where he and several of his male counterparts were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. McKinney said she was offered a joint, which she later came to believe had been laced with a “narcotic or other intoxicating substance.” McKinney says Combs coerced her into a bathroom and then forced her to perform a sexual act on him by pushing her head toward his crotch. She says she passed out when they returned to the studio.
When McKinney awoke, she was alone in a taxicab headed back to the home of an unnamed fashion designer who had made the initial introductions when she immediately realized she had been assaulted.
