R&B singer Cassie moved out of the United States at some point after receiving her US$20mil payout from Sean “Diddy” Combs, according to a report, and has no intention to return.
The songstress, whose full name is Cassie Ventura, revealed her departure from the US in a court declaration related to her ongoing legal drama with male escort Clayton Howard.
“I reside outside of the United States,” she wrote, per TMZ. “I do not intend to move back to the United States.”
Ventura filed suit against Combs in November 2023, claiming the 54-year-old music producer raped her and subjected her to years of repeated physical and mental abuse. She said they began a sexual and professional relationship shortly after they met in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37. After she signed to his label, Diddy introduced her to his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle,” she said, but things quickly took a turn from there.
Diddy took control of her personal life, she said, threatening her career and loved ones while forcing her to engage in various sex acts with male sex workers, often at his “freak-off” parties. He also plied her with drugs and recorded some of the sexual encounters, the songstress alleged.
Days after filing, the suit was settled, but it sparked an outpouring of allegations from others and a subsequent federal sex trafficking trial in New York. During her testimony against Diddy, the Me & U singer said she was paid US$20mil to drop her suit.
Howard has claimed he was among those hired to work at Diddy’s freak-off events, and in a new lawsuit accused Cassie of abusing him alongside the disgraced music mogul. He said he got Cassie pregnant, though she later had an abortion, and that he was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted illness after one of the parties.
Cassie filed her own suit in response, denying the allegations. She also said Howard had texted her husband, Alex Fine, to show her support after she came forward with her claims against Diddy. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
