Diddy admits beating girlfriend after video

Cassie Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs in March 2018

"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video"

(Image credit: Hollywood To You / Star Max / GC Images)

published 20 May 2024

What happened

Sean "Diddy" Combs apologized Sunday for beating, kicking and dragging former girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, 48 hours after CNN released CCTV video of the 2016 incident. Ventura described a matching altercation at the now-closed InterContinental Century City in a November 2023 federal lawsuit alleging years of abuse; Combs denied all the allegations but quickly settled the suit.

"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now," Combs said in an Instagram video. He said he had been "f--ked up" and "hit rock bottom," but his "behavior on that video is inexcusable."

Combs' statement is "more about himself than the many people he has hurt," Ventura's lawyer Meredith Firetog said. "When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.