Diddy admits beating ex-girlfriend Cassie, says he's sorry
Published:Sunday | May 19, 2024 | 10:35 AM
Sean Diddy' Combs issued an apology on Sunday after security video aired by CNN on Friday appeared to show him attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
The apology came in a video posted to his Instagram page in which he said his "behaviour on that video is inexcusable."
"It's so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that. I was f---ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses," Combs said.
"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now," he continued.
Combs said after that incident, he went to therapy and rehab.
The video aired Friday appears to show Combs, wearing only a white towel, punching and kicking the R&B singer who was his protege and longtime girlfriend at the time. The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging Cassie, and throwing a vase in her direction.
The security camera video, dated March 5, 2016, closely resembles the description of an incident at an InterContinental Hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles described in a November lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, that alleged years of sexual abuse and other violence by Combs.
The lawsuit alleges that Combs paid the hotel $50,000 for the security video. CNN did not say how it obtained the video but noted that it verified the location comparing it to publicly available images of the InterContinental Hotel.
Cassie's lawsuit was settled the day after it was filed but spurred intense scrutiny of Combs, with several more lawsuits filed in the following months, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led authorities to raid Combs' mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
Representatives for Combs did not immediately comment on the video on Friday, but he had previously denied the allegations in the lawsuits, and his lawyers had said he denies any wrongdoing and will fight to prove his innocence.
- Additional reporting from AP
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