Sean “Diddy” Combs apologized on Sunday for violently assaulting his ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel in 2016, after the resurfacing of a video showing the alleged incident by CNN last week.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you gotta do that. I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses,” Combs stated in an Instagram video. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
“I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he continued. “I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
The apology comes two days after CNN obtained and reported on a 2016 hotel video allegedly showing a man identified as Combs brutally assaulting a woman, which CNN claimed was Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura. The surveillance footage, captured within the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles, depicts various angles of Combs purportedly grabbing, shoving, and kicking Ventura.
Last week, Douglas Wigdor, an attorney representing Ventura, stated that the video "only further confirmed" Combs's “disturbing and dangerous behavior.”
Last year, Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of years of "abuse, violence, and sex trafficking" during their relationship. At the time, Combs denied the allegations and, through his attorney, claimed that he had “been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
The lawsuit was settled one day after it was filed, according to statements from both parties.
In the video, the woman, believed to be Ventura, exits a hotel room and heads toward the elevator. Combs is then seen running down the hallway after her, gripping the back of her neck and forcefully bringing her to the ground. The video then shows him kicking her while she is on the floor.
Combs then took the purse and suitcase that Ventura had dropped before delivering another kick. The footage depicts him briefly dragging her across the floor before seemingly returning to the room. Ventura, largely immobile throughout the ordeal, is later observed rising to her feet and picking her belongings from the floor.
As Ventura reaches for a phone on the ground, the video captures Combs returning. A mirror reflection in the footage seems to depict Combs pushing Ventura. Shortly after, Combs is observed sitting in a chair, from which he throws an object in Ventura's direction.
Since Ventura filed her lawsuit against the hip-hop artist late last year, he has encountered additional allegations of misconduct from numerous individuals. Among them is a New York music producer who accused him of sexual assault and coercion into engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes.
In a lawsuit filed last December, one woman claimed that the singer and two other men raped her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
Another woman alleged that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her after a date, while a different accuser claimed that the rapper, along with R&B singer Aaron Hall, sexually assaulted her and a friend. Both the alleged incidents have been claimed to have taken place in 1991.
In March, federal investigators raided the hip-hop mogul's residences in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a sex trafficking investigation in New York.
