Sean “Diddy” Combs, Cassie Ventura.
Cassie’s songwriter Tiffany Red is recalling the first time something felt “wrong” in the singer’s romance with Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Red, 37, told the story Wednesday, October 9, in Secret Life of Diddy — A Special Edition of 20/20 on ABC. One night in 2015, Cassie, who’s now 38, put Diddy on speakerphone and Tiffany heard the mogul screaming at his then-girlfriend and asking who was with her.
“Is someone in the car with you?” Red could hear Diddy say. “I know someone is in the car with you.”
Speaking with 20/20, Red said, “That was my first time being, like, ‘Something is wrong.’”
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And when Cassie (real name: Casandra Ventura) turned 29 in August 2015, Red said she witnessed Diddy explode at the singer and corner her in a room with his security. Diddy got “in her face and he’s cussing her out,” Red recalled. “He was really mad, he was really close to her face and she just had her head down.”
She added, “My sense was that everybody around him was afraid of him.”
Red has written several songs for Cassie, including “Joint (No Sleep)” in 2016 and “Don’t Let Go” and “Simple Things” in 2019. She has also collaborated with Zendaya and Jennifer Hudson.
“Cassie is sweet, she’s quiet, she’s a good person,” Red told 20/20’s Diddy special, recalling how the Connecticut-born model “was introduced to the world by Diddy.”
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Once, the rapper asked Red, “You’re the one writing all these songs about me?” She felt intimidated, “like he didn’t want her talking to me.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
Diddy, 54, is currently behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he awaits trial on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
He was arrested on Monday, September 16, after a grand jury indicted him following a string of sexual assault lawsuits and a federal investigation. The 14-page indictment accuses Diddy of abusing, threatening and coercing women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct.”
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Diddy has denied all allegations against him and pleaded not guilty.
On Wednesday, October 9, he claimed that the Department of Homeland Security leaked the recently-unearthed video of him physically assaulting Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. He accused the department of attempting to “undermine” his “right to a fair trial.” He also filed a new motion for an evidentiary hearing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In May, CNN aired the footage of Diddy grabbing Cassie by her neck, shoving, dragging and kicking her repeatedly. As it spread online, his actions were widely condemned.
Diddy later apologized without mentioning Cassie by name, saying, “I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted.”