Diddy apologizes for attacking ex-girlfriend Cassie in 2016 video: ‘I take full responsibility’

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Sean “Diddy” Combs posted an Instagram video apologizing for hitting his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura after footage of the violent 2016 incident emerged this week.

Security camera footage from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles was first obtained and published by CNN. It shows Diddy chasing Cassie down a hotel hallway, throwing her to the ground and kicking her.

On Sunday, the music mogul broke his silence about the footage on Instagram.

In the video, Diddy calls his behavior “inexcusable” and says he “takes full responsibility for his actions in the video.”

He describes the incident as “one of the darkest times in his life” and says he feels “shitty” and “disgusted by his actions.”

He says he “asked God for his mercy and grace” but “didn’t ask for forgiveness,” adding that he is “truly sorry” and that he sought professional help and therapy after the 2016 incident did rehab.

“It’s so difficult to think about the darkest times in life, but sometimes you have to,” he says.

“I was at my wits’ end – I hit rock bottom – but I’m not making excuses. My behavior in this video is inexcusable.”

Before the hotel security footage came to light, Combs had strongly denied all allegations made against him, including claims that he trapped Cassie in “a cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking” during their relationship.

He doesn’t mention Cassie by name in his video apology.

Social media users were unimpressed by the apology, pointing to his previous denials and noting that he would not have admitted his actions or apologized if the video had never been released.

The hotel footage was taken from multiple angles and shows Diddy, dressed in a towel, chasing Cassie down the hallway before attacking her near elevators. He then tries to drag her back down the corridor.

After knocking 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 ground.

Later, the footage shows Cassie slowly getting up and picking up items from the floor before reaching for a hotel phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Diddy, still in a towel and socks, comes back.

A mirror directly opposite the security camera shows Diddy pushing Cassie. He can then be seen throwing an object at her.

According to CNN, Diddy later paid InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage.

The video appears to confirm several claims made in a lawsuit filed by Cassie in 2023, in which she claimed she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Diddy on multiple occasions over the course of 10 years.

According to the complaint, which described the altercation as occurring “in approximately March 2016,” Diddy “was extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, causing her to have a black eye.”

After the mogul fell asleep, Cassie had tried to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and “followed her into the hotel hallway while yelling at her,” the complaint says.

“He grabbed her, then picked up glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, shattering glass around her as she ran to the elevator to escape,” it said.

The lawsuit also alleged that not long after she met him, Diddy introduced the singer to his “showy, fast-paced, drug-fueled lifestyle” and signed her to his label in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37 .

Cassie said the pattern of abuse began as soon as their relationship began and that when she tried to end it in 2018, he forced his way into her Los Angeles home and raped her.

The lawsuit against Diddy was settled just a 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 did not change his denial of the allegations.

The Independent has reached out to representatives for Diddy and Cassie for comment on the incident shown in the surveillance footage.

Despite the footage’s emergence, Diddy is not expected to face criminal charges.

On Friday, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s office said no charges could be filed against Diddy because “if the conduct depicted had occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would not be able to file charges because of the conduct would have taken place beyond the period in which a crime occurred.” Bodily bodily harm can be prosecuted under criminal law.”

This latest scandal comes at a time when Diddy is facing a series of civil lawsuits accusing him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.

The allegations date back to the 1990s, when the rapper founded his record label Bad Boy Records.

His lawyers have branded the lawsuits and their allegations a money grab, “baseless” or “disgusting.” The entertainer has not been formally charged or accused of a crime by federal prosecutors.

It also comes less than two months after federal agents from the U.S. Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25 as part of a sex trafficking investigation.