The trial of Sean Combs continues and is expected to last eight weeks. He denies all allegations against him and has pleaded not guilty in court.
The sex trafficking trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs continues to shine a light on his 11-year relationship with Cassie Ventura. The pair met when Ventura was 19 and Combs was 37 and began dating shortly after Combs signed her to his label Bad Boy Records. They dated on and off for a decade between 2007 and 2018.
Since that moment, their entire relationship has been brought into question and, now that Combs' trial has begun, it is being dissected before the judge and jury. Given that she and Combs dated on and off during this period, however, Ventura's other relationships are also being revisited, not just in court but in the media. That includes her brief relationship with the rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi. Ventura, who is eight months pregnant with her and her husband Alex Fine's third child, has testified about both relationships in court.
In November 2023, Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging that he subjected her to a pattern of abuse and control throughout their relationship. Combs denied the allegations and the lawsuit was settled out of court for $20 million (£15m). However, the following May, CCTV footage from 2016 was leaked and the video showed Combs violently beating and kicking Ventura outside their hotel room. The music mogul's lawyers have since claimed CNN altered the video then 'destroyed the original footage'.
When did Cassie and Kid Cudi date?
The two singers dated for a brief period at the start of 2011, during a break in her relationship with Combs. Ventura told the court she was 'not in the greatest place' with Combs when she began dating Mescudi.
She claims to have broken up with Mescudi in fear of Combs' reaction. Apparently, Combs learned about Ventura and Mescudi’s romantic involvement during one of his notorious 'Freak Offs' – where Ventura told the court Combs would make her engage in sexual activities with other men.
She alleges that Combs came across an email between Ventura and Mescudi’s staff about a toiletry bag. 'I just remember him putting a wine opener between his fingers and lunging at me,' she told the court. She alleges that she than ran off to call Mescudi using a burner phone, which she used to avoid Combs finding out that she was dating someone new.
After briefly being at Mescudi’s house, she told the court she decided to resolve the situation when Combs wanted to talk about it. She then arrived at Combs' residence and claims he was 'irate' and beat her and threatened to release the freak off videos to hurt both her and Mescudi.
'Sean kicked me in the back, I fell on the floor and then left. I had a large bruise on my back and bruises on other places – he literally kicked me with the bottom of his foot,' the court heard. Ventura said when she returned to her hotel room, it had been 'torn up', with urine on the floor, clothes thrown around and faeces in the toilet. She said Combs told her 'he was going to hurt Scott and I' and made threats about harming the rapper.
'He mentioned when we were out of the country that Scott’s car would be blown up and he wanted his friends to see it,' Ventura told the jury. Eventually, Ventura says she decided to stop dating Mescudi out of fear for both of their safety.
Combs' alleged quest for power and control is something that has been explored in several reports, investigations and documentaries in recent months. All of which hope to gain a greater understanding of what Combs was like as a person during this period.
Did Diddy blow up Kid Cudi's car?
In Ventura's original lawsuit, she alleges that Combs orchestrated a car bomb in Mescudi's car and claims it shows 'what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had slighted him'. In a brief response to The New York Times last year, Mescudi, said the description of the incident in Ventura’s lawsuit was accurate.
A letter from federal prosecutors described a similar situation. It posits that in the early morning hours of 22 December 2011, Combs and an associate are alleged to have 'kidnapped an individual at gunpoint to facilitate breaking into and entering the residence' of a person they refer to as 'Individual-1'. According to the letter, people working for Combs set fire to Individual-1’s car two weeks later, 'by slicing open the car’s convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior'. Multiple witnesses, the letter said, testified about the events surrounding the kidnapping and break-in.
In response, Combs' lawyer Marc Agnifilo said: 'There is no allegation that Mr. Combs was involved in these actions or directed anyone else to take them. It’s clear the government doesn’t know who set fire to the vehicle or how it relates to Mr. Combs, who denies any involvement.'
Will Kid Cudi testify in court?
While it is not clear whether Kid Cudi himself will testify in court, his name was on the 'people and places list' which was presented to the jury before the trial. The judge, Arun Subramanian, described the list of A-list names that could come up in the trial as so 'mammoth' it looked like 'an appendix for Lord of the Rings'.
Who did Diddy date before Cassie?
Prior to his relationship with Ventura, Combs was in an on-off relationship with Kim Porter, with whom he has three children. They broke up for the final time in 2007 and Porter died of pneumonia in 2018.
Combs also dated Jennifer Lopez between 1999 and 2001, in between his relationships with Porter. Theirs was a romance marked by turbulence and scandal, not least because they were both arrested following a shooting incident outside a club in New York in 1999. Lopez was released without charges after 14 hours in custody and Combs was later acquitted.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).