Sean “Diddy” Combs used music to “control” Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura according to voices in the new ABC special about the disgraced music mogul.

On Wednesday, October 9, an ABC special premiered called Secret Life of Diddy — A Special Edition of 20/20. The special dissected Diddy’s arrest, the allegations, his relationship with Cassie as well as the footage of him beating her. Cassie was signed to Bad Boy Record which owned by Diddy. They first met when she was 19 and he was 37. Her first and only studio album, Cassie, released on August 8, 2006.

The singer had a sophomore album she had been working on for ten years that did not see the light of day. During that time, Cassie released a mixtape in 2013 called RockaByeBaby and a few non-album singles such as King of Hearts that had a remix with Kanye West and The Boys featuring Nicki Minaj. A couple of guest speakers in the special talked about how there was a reason for Cassie’s stalled album.
“She working on an album for ten years. It never had a release date and never had a title. This was never intended to come out This was a pacifier just to keep her happy in between what we do at night,” Touré, an independent culture journalist, said.

Cassie and Diddy dated for 11 years ( Image: FilmMagic)
Tiffany Red, a songwriter for many stars and Cassie was one of them, echoed that sentiment about the album not intending to be released and offered her own explanation for why the album never came out: “Because he was using the music to control Cassie.”

She added that how Diddy kept saying he was going to release it and Cassie told her the only time he would ever really seriously talked about it was during his notorious “Freak Off” parties. “She told me the only time he was willing to talk about his plans for her music was during the ‘Freak Offs,'” Tiffany elaborated.

Cassie and Diddy broke up their 11 year relationship in 2018. In November 2023, Cassie filed a lawsuit against Diddy accusing of him of rape and physical abuse during their more than decade long relationship. The next day, the two settled the lawsuit but the matters of the settlement was not disclosed. After Cassie’s explosive lawsuit, many allegations came pouring in (and still are) against the 54-year-old rapper.

Cassied accused Diddy in 2023 of sexual and physical abuse ( Image: Getty Images North America)
In May, CNN published surveillance footage showcasing Diddy brutally assaulting Cassie in a hotel footage in 2016. Diddy made a apology video after the released footage, saying, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable.”

Diddy is now currently being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits trial. He was arrested and indicted on charges of sex trafficking , racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution on September 16. Diddy has pled not guilty to the charges and has denied all the allegations.