NEW YORK — Casandra “Cassie” Ventura took the stand as the star witness at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial in New York on Tuesday, relaying horrific beatings she endured by the multimillionaire hip-hop mogul and being forced to participate in dayslong, demoralizing and disgusting sexual performances with male sex workers at his direction.

Asked how frequently Combs assaulted her during their roughly decadelong relationship that began in 2006, Ventura, who met him at 19 and is now 38, said, “Too frequently,” describing being left battered to a bloody pulp.

“He would bash me on my head,” Ventura said. “The whites of my eyes would be red. Bruises all over my body.”

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson, Ventura, who is eight months pregnant, said Combs introduced the idea of so-called “freakoff” sessions early into their relationship, when she was around 22, and that he described them as “voyeurism.” She said Combs, 17 years her senior, began courting her around her 21st birthday, recalling him first inviting her to the Trump International Hotel by Columbus Circle.

“It basically entailed the hiring of an escort and setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” Ventura said of the sexual performances, sounding shaken. “It just involved Sean being able to watch me with the other person and actually direct us and what we were doing, sexually.”

A visibly emotional Ventura recalled her stomach churning upon grasping what he wanted her to do in the freakoffs, but feeling she loved him and had a responsibility to make him happy as he’d signed her to Bad Boy Records for a 10-album deal when she was 19.

Eventually, Ventura said, she was continuing to participate in the sessions because Combs had been violent with her and threatened to release footage of her sleeping with male sex workers as blackmail.

“It was always in the back of my mind that I would somehow be hurt by him. Sean is a really polarizing person, also very charming, so it’s hard to be able to decide in that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know; I just didn’t know what would happen."

After falling in love with Combs and having some of her first sexual experiences with him, Ventura said he became a controlling force in her life who would micromanage every moment of her day, incessantly calling and texting her and having his around-the-clock security track her down if he couldn’t make contact. His psychological abuse was constant, and his physical abuse was unpredictable, Ventura said.

“Make the wrong face and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she testified. “I need to ‘fix my face,’ ‘watch my mouth.’ Those were things that were said in the relationship a lot.”

Combs allowed only nine of the 10 albums promised to Ventura to be produced despite her recording “hundreds” of songs throughout their relationship, she said. He also forced her to reject different professional opportunities that arose, like invitations to participate in runway shows.

Ventura said having sex with strangers at Combs’ behest, which included days of extreme physical exertion and drug use, became a full-time job. She said the sessions, on average, ranged from 36 to 72 hours and that the longest one she remembered lasted four days.

“Plainly, the freakoffs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” she said. “Recovering from the drugs, dehydration, just staying awake all that time.”

Wearing a white shirt, gray sweater, and gray slacks, Combs looked at Ventura while she testified with a blank expression. She did not look at him. Domestic violence allegations against the mogul exploded into public view in late 2023 when Ventura brought suit against the mogul, alleging he’d subjected her to years of rape, sexual assault and physical abuse. Combs settled the suit for a reported $30 million within a day and publicly apologized. A criminal probe soon followed.

Before Ventura took the stand, the defense asked Judge Arun Subramanian to eject Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, from the courtroom as they might call him to the stand. Geragos said Fine texted Combs and threatened him in 2018 about allegedly raping Ventura. The judge said Fine, who Ventura wed in 2019, could remain in court but would have to leave if the alleged incident came up.

Jurors on Monday heard from a former security guard at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles who testified about Combs brutally assaulting Ventura in 2016 and watched footage of the highly publicized assault. They then heard from a former male revue manager, who said Combs hired him to sleep with Ventura from 2012 to late 2013 and that he stopped participating after witnessing the mogul beating a distraught Ventura.

In the prosecution’s opening statement Monday, the feds said Combs, assisted by a network of high-ranking employees and bodyguards, used his businesses and his wealth to force and manipulate women into the depraved “freakoff” sexual performances, often under the influence of drugs.

Combs’ defense, in turn, said the case boiled down to a celebrity’s private sexual proclivities, love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” and a “swingers lifestyle” that may be offensive to some but is not illegal. She said videos of “freakoffs” could be hard to watch but said they were “intimate,” consensual and never meant to be viewed by anyone who didn’t participate.

Combs 55, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and could face life in prison if convicted. He’s being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

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