NEW YORK — Warning: This story contains graphic details and allegations of sexual assault.
Sean “Diddy” Combs forced his ex-girlfriend to have a “freak-off”-style sexual encounter with a male sex worker last year after chasing her around her California home, putting her in a chokehold, punching her in the face and kicking down doors, the woman testified Monday.
Testifying for a third day under the pseudonym “Jane,” the woman said Combs erupted after she accused him of cheating on her. After beating her, Jane said, Combs invited a sex worker over, gave her an ecstasy pill and told her: “You’re not going to ruin my night like this.”
Jane, whose injuries included a black eye and welts on her forehead, said she’d planned June 18, 2024, as as a romantic night with Combs, but now remembers it “a very terrible day.”
It’s also one of the more recent examples of Combs acting violently toward a woman while seeking to fulfill his sexual desires -- happening amid the federal investigation that led to his arrest last September.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could put him in prison for life.
As Jane left the witness stand Monday, she told jurors: “I just pray for his continued healing.” The couple broke up after Combs’ arrest, but she said he still pays her rent.
Just a few weeks after Jane alleges Combs beat her, he publicly stated that he was “committed to being a better man every day” after video leaked of him attacking his former longtime girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura, at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The Associated Press doesn’t name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have shared their identities publicly, as Cassie has.
Jane’s testimony is expected to fill the bulk of the trial’s fifth week, as prosecutors move closer to the end of their presentation before the defense gets its turn.
Jane, who faces questioning Tuesday from Combs’ lawyers, said the rapper and entrepreneur followed her to a bathroom and kicked the door “literally off the hinges” after she shoved his head into a countertop, hurled glasses and candles at him and screamed, “I hate you.”
After moving to a locked closet, Jane said she tried to run away, but Combs kicked her in the thigh and knocked her to the ground. He then lifted her up by the neck and put her in a chokehold, she said, telling jurors: “I couldn’t breathe.”
Jane said she then ran about six blocks and hid behind a wall for what she estimated was about two hours. When she figured things had calmed down, she said, she walked back to the home -- but Combs was still around, walking toward her in the street.
Jane said she retreated to a guest bedroom and then ran into the backyard, curling into a ball on the ground as she implored Combs to leave. He refused, she said, and “started punching my head, he started kicking me.” Eventually, she said, “he grabs me by my arm or my hair and starts dragging me back to the house.”
Combs then followed her to the shower, she said, and smacked her in the face so hard she lost her balance and fell to the floor. Jane said she was exhausted, but Combs insisted on inviting over a male sex worker and told her to put some makeup on and adjust her hair to hide her injuries.
“I don’t want to, I don’t want to,” Jane recalled saying, to which she said Combs forcefully replied: “then is this coercion?”
Also Monday, Jane said she told Combs that she cried for three days and felt nauseated after reading Cassie’s November 2023 lawsuit against him, which described having hundreds of drug-fueled “freak-off” sex marathons with Combs and male sex workers.
Jane, who referred to similar encounters with Combs as “debauchery” and “hotel nights,” said she felt like she was “reading my own sexual trauma” as she read the lawsuit, which Combs settled within a day for $20 million. She said it followed her experience with the Bad Boy Records founder “word for word, exactly my experience.”
Cassie dated Combs for more than a decade and testified that she engaged in weekly “freak-offs,” many lasting several for days. She said Combs often watched or filmed the sessions.
Jane read aloud for the jury hundreds of text messages, including some in which she complained that Combs seemed to be forcing her into sex marathons by threatening to take away her home.
She pleaded with him to recognize the damage the encounters were doing, writing: “I am not an animal.”
Article by Michael R. Sisak, Larry Neumeister.
Resources for sexual assault survivors in Canada
If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:
- Call 911 if you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety.
- The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres' website has a comprehensive list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling.
- The Ending Violence Association of Canada‘s website has links to helplines, support services and locations across Canada that offer sexual assault kits.
- Indian Residential School Survivors Society crisis lines: +1 866 925 4419 or +1 800 721 0066 (24/7)
- Toronto Rape Crisis Centre crisis line: +1 416 597 8808 (24/7)
- Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: +1 833 900 1010 (24/7)
- Trans Lifeline: +1 877 330 6366
- Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988 (24/7)
- Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre for current and former Canadian Armed Forces members: +1 844 750 1648
- Read about your rights as a victim on the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime website.
