Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
Cassie Ventura ended her testimony against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Friday, capping four days of detailing what she alleged to be coercive, humiliating sex by dropping a new revelation.
The R&B singer — the prosecution’s star witness — revealed on the stand during Combs’ criminal sex-trafficking trial that she is set to receive a multimillion-dollar settlement from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.
“I think it was $10 million,” Ventura told a federal jury in Manhattan of the money she says she’s receiving from the hotel.
The InterContinental is where security camera footage captured Combs beating Ventura in a hallway in 2016, after what Ventura and federal prosecutors said was one of Combs’ drug-fueled sex marathons, which he called “freak offs.”
Under questioning by defense attorney Anna Estevao, Ventura told the eight-man, four-woman jury that she did not know the exact monetary figure, but described the settlement as a done deal.
“And have you reached the end of settlement discussions with the InterContinental?” Estevao asked Ventura to which she replied, “I have.”
Representatives for the hotel declined to comment.
Outside of court, Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, would not confirm the settlement amount, only saying, “The record is the record.”
At Combs’ trial, which kicked off earlier this week, the jury was shown the 2016 footage of Combs attacking Ventura in the hotel hallway.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson said in her opening statements that at the time, the hip-hop mogul paid a security guard at the hotel $100,000 in a brown paper envelope in exchange for the footage.
Combs apologized for his actions in the video after CNN published the footage last year.
The hotel settlement is the second settlement Ventura revealed during her testimony. She also told jurors that Combs paid her $20 million to settle her civil lawsuit against him in 2023.
In the lawsuit, Ventura accused Combs of of rape, physical abuse, and controlling her during their more than decadelong relationship. She also detailed Combs’ InterContinental Hotel attack in the suit and said in the court papers that Combs paid the hotel $50,000 for the footage of it.
While under questioning by Johnson on Friday, Ventura said she would give the $20 million back if it meant never having joined Combs’ freak offs.
“If I hadn’t done freak offs, I would have had agency and autonomy,” she said. “I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get it back.”
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