A jury on Monday heard recordings of Sean “Diddy” Combs appearing to attempt damage control with a woman he allegedly brutally beat and coerced into dehumanizing sexual performances after a bombshell lawsuit blasted sex crimes allegations against him into public view.
The witness, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” took the stand late Thursday and has testified that she became romantically involved with Combs a few months after they met in late 2020. Not long after they started seeing each other, the single mom from California said Combs began financially supporting her and pushing her to participate in marathon, days-long sexual performances with male sex workers and escorts that he “framed as love.”
She said she began to push back by late 2023, telling Combs he was treating her like “an animal.”
On Monday, Jane said she fainted upon realizing the truth of her toxic dynamic with Combs when singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed suit against him in November 2023, alleging Combs had terrorized her for years with horrific physical abuse and coerced her into degrading sexual performances. Combs settled the explosive lawsuit in 24 hours for $20 million, jurors heard earlier in the trial. The feds then began investigating him.
“There were three specific pages that was just a harrowing reference to what I was experiencing,” Jane testified in Manhattan federal court. “I was just bewildered, just in shock.”
In a text confronting Combs, Jane wrote, “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma.”
In an audio recording played for the jury, a distraught Jane is heard telling Combs she was sick to her stomach and had been crying for three days about the suit, mirroring her experience “word for word.”
Comb is heard repeatedly questioning Jane about whether she was recording the call and saying he thought “freak offs” were “kinky s–t” she enjoyed.
On another recording played in court, a groveling Combs tells Jane, “I need your support.”
“Please, as a friend,” Combs is heard saying.
Jane said she tried to create some distance with Combs in late 2023, feeling he was destructive to her mental health. By year’s end, she told him she was having suicidal thoughts. Around the same time, she said he started threatening to release footage of her sleeping with escorts.
The witness said Combs became brutally violent with her on June 18, 2024, just a few months before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges. She described being savagely beaten on what was supposed to be a date night after she found out he’d dated a woman 25 years his junior and confronted him.
“I just remember calling him a pedophile,” she said, recalling asking Combs, “If a girl can’t buy her own drinks, what makes you attracted to her?”
Jane said the situation quickly escalated, with her shoving Combs’ head into marble by a kitchen counter. Combs then lost it, she said, kicking doors off their hinges as Jane tried to hide from him.
“He picked me up in a chokehold and then choked me,” Jane said, describing what Combs did after breaking into a closet where she was hiding. “I couldn’t breathe, and I was on my tippy toes.”
In a blow-by-blow account, Jane said she had fled the property and hid for a while. When she came back, she continued fighting with Combs, sustaining blows to her head and face.
Jane then became overcome with emotion, describing how Combs would summon “Anton,” a male escort they’d previously dealt with, to the property and direct her to perform oral sex with a beaten-up face.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to!’” Jane testified, describing Combs as then coming right up to her face, holding out an ecstasy pill, and asking her, “Is this coercion?”
Earlier, jurors saw multiple examples of Jane expressing pain and agony to Combs about being coerced into realizing his revolting sexual fantasies, in one text, telling him, “Even on two of my own birthdays, you forced men on me for days.” In response, she said he would typically threaten to take away the roof over her head, gaslight her, or resort to “love bombing” — showering her with affection as a manipulation tactic.
Jane, who the judge has ordered members of the public and media not to identify, is expected to be the final witness of three who will testify that Combs sexually exploited and psychologically abused them, with Ventura and a former assistant of Combs previously taking the stand.
Jane said she was still entangled with Combs and that the mogul was still paying her rent and her lawyers. She said she last met with his defense team in April and that she had been working through what happened between them in therapy for the last three months.
Prosecutors have charged Combs, 55, with operating a criminal enterprise from 2004 to 2024, in which his inner circle committed sex trafficking, kidnapping, arson, drug distribution, labor, and labor exploitation. The rap mogul has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transporting individuals for prostitution, and related charges.
Originally Published: June 9, 2025 at 1:18 PM EDT
