Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial is shaping up to be one of the most explosive news stories of the year. The music mogul was arrested for charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation, but he denies all allegations and has pleaded not guilty in court.
Plenty of celebs have been mentioned in the case- including Lauren London, Usher, who previously described Diddy as a mentor and Michael B. Jordan, who reportedly had a brief flirtation with Ventura during the period of their on-off relationship. However, there’s been no suggestion that they were involved in the alleged crimes, nor are they accused of any wrongdoing.
Many others have taken the stand, including Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard, Diddy’s former personal assistant David James and an escort Diddy allegedly paid for ‘freak offs’ called Daniel Phillip.
Another of Diddy’s personal assistants, Capricorn Clark, also recently testified against her former boss. Here’s everything you need to know about what she said in court.
How does Capricorn Clark know Diddy?
Capricorn Clark landed an internship with Def Jam Records shortly after graduating from high school, and in 2004 she became Combs’ personal assistant. After briefly leaving in 2006, she returned to work for the music mogul a year later, this time as the director of marketing for Sean John Women’s.
She then became a global brand director in 2008 before being let go in 2012. Following this, she worked as Cassie Ventura’s creative director from 2016 to 2018.
What did Capricorn Clark say about Diddy at his trial?
Clark claimed that as Diddy’s assistant, she typically worked from 9 a.m. until 4 a.m. without a lunch break. She was paid $65,000 a year and regularly only got four hours of sleep, which led to her developing stress-induced alopecia.
Capricorn said that on her very first day as his personal assistant, Diddy took her to Central Park with his security guard around 9 p.m. He said that he’d had no idea she previously worked at Death Row Records, which was founded by Combs’ rival Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. Clark testified, ‘He told me that he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and if anything happened, he would have to kill me.’
She also said that Diddy once accused her of stealing jewellery that had been on loan to him from a jeweller. According to Clark, Diddy’s security guard questioned her for hours. The following day, the security guard dropped her to a locked office space with another man and Clark was made to take a lie detector test. Clark testified that the man told her that if she failed the test, ‘they’re going to throw you into the East River.’ After they couldn’t get an accurate reading, the process was repeated for five days. Clark said she didn’t report the incident to the police because she worked under a non-disclosure agreement.
Clark said that at one point a human resources representative from Bad Boy gave Diddy a sheet that calculated what Clark was owed for overtime, and it came to $80,000 for a three-month period. According to Capricorn, ‘He ripped up the paper,’ and she was never compensated for the overtime.
It was also Clark’s job to sweep hotel rooms for anything Diddy may have left behind after a stay, and she said she sometimes saw damage to the rooms, including ‘handprints left in oil.’
She testified that she witnessed Combs doing ecstasy and molly about once a week, in addition to prescription medication.
Clark also detailed her breaking point which took place when she was staying in Combs’ Miami home in the summer of 2006. She said that when she arrived, Combs told her, ‘I don’t care what goes on this weekend, you are not to leave this house.’
On that trip, Clark said Combs told her, ‘See, your problem is you want a life, and you can’t have that here.’ The following day, Clark said she told Combs’ chef, ‘I hate it here,’ and the chef then reported that comment to Diddy. Clark said in court, ‘[Diddy] immediately looked at me and said, ‘“You hate it here?”’ and he charged me.’ She testified that Combs began pushing her and demanding she get out of his house.
Eventually, one of Combs’ security guards intervened, telling Diddy to stop and advising Clark to go pack her belongings. Clark revealed to the court that she left her job after this incident because ‘it was crossing my boundary.’
She returned to work in 2007 as the director of marketing for Sean John Women’s, saying she didn’t want to work directly under Diddy after the Miami incident. She told the court, ‘I didn’t want that close proximity in his personal orbit like that.’
What did Capricorn Clark say about Cassie Ventura during Diddy’s trial?
Capricorn Clark testified that Combs had final approval over everything Cassie wore and did, including work opportunity that she could or couldn’t take.
She said that she was aware that Cassie was seeing Kid Cudi in 2011 and was worried about Diddy finding out. She said Ventura once texted her asking if they could pick up Kid Cudi, and Clark told Ventura to delete the text because Combs paid for both of their phones. Clark then took Ventura to Best Buy to buy a burner phone, she testified.
Clark revealed that one night in 2011, Diddy showed up to her apartment with a gun. He reportedly said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ and asked her about Kid Cudi. She testified that Combs, while still holding the gun, told her, ‘Get dressed, we’re going to go kill’ him.
According to Clark, he then told her, ‘I don’t give a f**k what you want to do, go get dressed.’ When they reached Kid Cudi’s home, Clark said she stayed in the car and called Cassie Ventura on her burner phone. Soon, Kid Cudi’s car arrived but quickly drove away, followed by Combs. Clark testified, ‘It felt like forever, but couldn’t have been longer than a minute.’
Clark was told by Combs to find Cassie and convince her that he had never broken into Kid Cudi’s home, warning her, ‘If you guys don’t convince him of that, I’ll kill all you.’
After finding Ventura, Clark took her to Combs’s home where he ‘immediately began kicking Cassie.’ Clark then reportedly called Cassie’s mother- who had previously also taken the stand against Diddy- and told her, ‘Please help her. I can’t call the police, but you can.’
Clark estimated that Diddy threatened her about 50 times between December 2011 and the following summer. She also said that Diddy forbade her from being friends with Cassie following the incident with Kid Cudi and told her she could only see her when they were working.
Why was Capricorn Clark fired by Diddy?
While she was on holiday in 2012, Clark said she was still being sent work, so she told an HR employee that Diddy was mad at her because she ‘didn’t tell him his girlfriend was cheating on him.’ Shortly after she made that comment, she was terminated and accused of improperly taking vacation. She said after being fired, Diddy told her, ‘That I would never work again, that he would show me that all these people weren’t my friends, that he would make me kill myself.’
However, Capricorn Clark returned to work for Combs as Cassie Ventura’s creative director in 2016. She left the position in 2018, and she testified that was the last time she spoke to Ventura.
Sarah O'Byrne has worked for Bauer Media since May 2023. She writes for Grazia, heat, Closer, Bella and Yours.