An attorney for Casandra “Cassie” Ventura has slammed Sean “Diddy” Combs’ apology as “disingenuous” after he broke his silence over the release of shocking footage showing him attacking her in a hotel hallway in 2016.
Diddy posted an Instagram video on Sunday apologizing for beating his then-girlfriend Cassie, calling his behaviour “inexcusable” and saying he “takes full responsibility for his actions in the video”.
Cassie’s attorney Meredith Firetog later responded to his apology saying that it was “more about himself than the many people he has hurt” and that he was only saying sorry because the footage has now come to light.
“When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday,” Ms Firetog told CNN in a statement.
“That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words,” she added.
Her statement came hours after the music mogul took to Instagram to apologize for his actions in the footage.
In the video, Diddy refers to the incident as “one of the darkest times in his life”, saying that he was “f***ed up” and is “disgusted by his actions”.
He says he “has asked God for his mercy and grace” but is “not asking for forgiveness”, adding that he is “truly sorry” and that he sought professional help and went to therapy and rehab in the aftermath of the 2016 incident.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” he says.
“I was f***ed up – I hit rock bottom – but I make no excuses. My behaviour on that video is inexcusable.”
Prior to the hotel security footage coming to light, Combs had strongly denied all of the allegations against him including claims that he had trapped Cassie in “a cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking” during their relationship.
In his video apology, he does not mention Cassie by name.
Social media users appeared unimpressed by the apology, referring to his previous denials and noting that, had the video never come out, he would not have admitted his actions or apologised.
The security camera footage from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles – first obtained and published by CNN last week – shows Diddy chasing Cassie down a hotel hallway, throwing her to the ground and kicking her.
Captured from multiple angles, the hotel footage shows Diddy dressed in a towel chasing Cassie down the hallway before attacking her near elevators. He then attempts to drag her back down the corridor.
After pushing Cassie to the ground, Diddy retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks her again as she lies on the floor.
Cassie is later seen in the footage slowly standing up and gathering items from the floor before reaching for a hotel phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Diddy, still in a towel and socks, returns.
A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Diddy shoving Cassie. He is then seen hurling an object at her.
According to CNN, Diddy later paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage.
The video appears to corroborate several allegations made in a lawsuit brought by Cassie in 2023, in which she claimed she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Diddy on many occasions over 10 years.
According to the complaint, which cited the altercation as occurring “around March 2016”, Diddy became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye”.
After the mogul fell asleep, Cassie had attempted to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her”, the complaint said.
“He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape,” it stated.
The lawsuit also claimed that Diddy brought the singer into his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle” not long after she met him, and signed her to his label in 2005 when she was just 19 and he was 37.
Cassie said that the pattern of abuse began as soon as their relationship started and that, as she was trying to end it in 2018, he forced himself into her Los Angeles home and raped her.
The lawsuit against Diddy was settled just one day after she filed it for an undisclosed amount of money.
Cassie told CNN at the time that she had chosen to “resolve this matter amicably”, while Diddy’s attorney said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing” and didn’t change his denial of the allegations.
The Independent has contacted representatives for both Diddy and Cassie for comment about the incident shown in the surveillance footage.
Despite the footage surfacing, Diddy is not expected to face any criminal charges.
On Friday, the office of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said that charges cannot be brought against Diddy because “if the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted.”
This latest scandal comes at a time when Diddy is facing a string of civil lawsuits accusing him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.
The allegations date as far back as the 1990s, when the rapper founded his record label, Bad Boy Records.
His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening”. The entertainer has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.
It also comes less than two months after federal agents with US Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s houses in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March as part of a sex trafficking probe.
