Sean 'Diddy' Combs's sobbing ex-girlfriend testifies at trial

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17 hours ago

Warning: This story contains details that may be distressing to some readers.
A woman who was dating Sean "Diddy" Combs at the time of his arrest last year has broken down in tears in his trial while giving testimony about their many drug-fuelled sexual encounters.
She told the New York court Mr Combs ignored her signals to stop and scolded her for crying after another encounter.
Appearing under the pseudonym "Jane", the woman began her testimony in the Manhattan federal court on Thursday, local time.
Jane continued her testimony on Friday, when she recounted how Mr Combs pushed her to continue having sex with men while he watched.
She said this was even after she gave "subtle cues" — saying she was tired and hungry, making faces and gestures — that she wanted to stop.
Instead, she said, he told her to "finish strong".
Asked why she did not tell him outright, Jane sobbed: "I just, I don't know."
Later, she said Mr Combs would shut her down when she tried to talk about ending the encounters, which she called "dark" and "sleazy".
The 55-year-old has pleaded not guilty to running his business empire as a racketeering enterprise that enabled and concealed the abuse of women over two decades.
The prosecution says he used his power to coerce victims into participating in marathon, drug-fuelled orgies known as "freak-offs".
If convicted, he faces 15 years to life in prison.
His legal team has asserted the sexual activities were all consensual and nothing Mr Combs did amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Mr Combs, who was arrested on September 16 last year, has been denied bail, meaning he is in prison while the trial happens.
He is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Mr Combs's trial in began on May 12 and it is expected to continue for another few weeks.
Recordings of the trial are not allowed, which is why the only images from inside the court are drawings from courtroom artists.
R&B singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, one of Mr Combs's ex-girlfriends has already testified, as has rapper Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi.
This article is a recap of the past two days of the trial.
Jane's account has closely mirrored that of Ms Ventura's.
Ms Ventura testified Mr Combs assaulted her and forced her into "hundreds" of encounters with male sex workers, encounters which have been referred to as "freak-offs".
In court, Jane called them "hotel nights" and the men "entertainers".
Prosecutor Maurene Comey sought to show that Mr Combs used his wealth to manipulate women into submitting to his sexual demands and make them reliant on him and his needs.
By September 2023, Jane said, Mr Combs had been paying her rent for about five months.
When asked what she feared would happen if she stopped doing hotel nights, Jane replied: "That Sean would take the house away."
Mr Combs was still paying her rent, Jane said.
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After one hotel encounter, Jane said she cried and Mr Combs told her, "Don't do that right now," and, "I can't do this right now. I'm too high."
She testified she had blacked out earlier from using the drug ecstasy, which Mr Combs gave her.
During another encounter, she tried to remain sober but vomited in a bathroom after having sex with two men in a row.
Mr Combs told her: "That's good. You'll feel better now that you've thrown up. So let's go."
She then had sex with a third man, she said, describing herself as "repulsed".
Jane said she endured the encounters because she valued time alone with Mr Combs afterwards.
"I would really fight to block out how sad I was after," she said.
In messages to him, she wrote: "My heart is really in this and it's breaking."
Jane wiped away tears as she recounted the many ill effects of hotel nights, including constant back pain, frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and soreness in her genitals and pelvic areas.
Jane dated Mr Combs from 2021 to 2024.
On Thursday, she testified their relationship began as loving and passionate but soon veered into having her engage in sex with other men.
The longest sessions lasted three and a half days, while most went on for about 24 to 30 hours.
On Friday, she told the court she poured her thoughts into the Notes app on her phone in November 2021, drafting a message to Mr Combs but never sending it.
"I don't know what you're calling me for, but I'm sorry I don't want to do drugs for days and days and have you use me to fulfil your freaky, wild desires in hotel rooms," Jane wrote in the unsent message.
In 2023, she said she texted Mr Combs to say she longed to return to the early days of their relationship.
She said regretted ever getting involved in the sexual encounters but felt obligated.
Mr Combs responded: "Girl, stop," she told the court.
Jane said the encounters continued into 2024 and she participated in one at Mr Combs's Miami-area estate as late as August — just weeks before his arrest at a Manhattan hotel.
Jurors on Friday heard the first audio from inside one of those encounters.
In the recording, Jane asked a man to wear a condom during her first hotel night, but Mr Combs "guilt tripped me out of it", she said.
"It wasn't something he wanted to see," she said.
Jane also said Mr Combs had her act as his drug mule at least twice, nervously smuggling pills in her checked luggage on commercial flights from Los Angeles to Miami.
She said he divvied up in the coloured pills into bottles, and she ended up using some of the drugs with him.
Her identity is being kept secret.
To protect Jane's anonymity, the judge has barred courtroom observers from describing or sketching her appearance in a way that would reveal her identity.
Ms Ventura's name and photos are being reported in this trial because she has chosen to go public with her story.
Mr Combs's lawyers have tried to sew doubt among jurors about the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses.
In opening arguments, lawyer Teny Geragos acknowledged Mr Combs had a "bad temper" and violent outbursts, but argued his sexual habits were part of a consensual swinger lifestyle.
The defence painted Ms Ventura, for example, as an eager participant in the so-called freak-offs.
When Ms Ventura was on the stand, Mr Combs's lawyers had her read texts and emails in which she expressed willingness to engage in the encounters.
Before Jane began testifying, the defence cross-examined Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, a friend of Ms Ventura and a graphic designer, who is suing Mr Combs.
Ms Bongolan testified that in 2016, Mr Combs held her over the edge of a balcony at a Los Angeles high-rise for 10 to 15 seconds.
It was an episode that traumatised her and left her with lasting night terrors, she said.
Mr Combs's lawyer Nicole Westmoreland suggested that Ms Bongolan lied or exaggerated.
She noted Mr Combs was on tour for much of September 2016, including for shows on the east coast of the US — which is on the opposite side of the country to the Californian city of Los Angeles — at about the time of the alleged balcony incident.
Ms Bongolan later testified she did not recall the exact date of the incident but had no doubt it occurred.
AP