Cassie cross-examined in Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial
R&B singer Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura returned to the witness stand for a third day on Thursday and was forced under cross-examination to read aloud to a jury her explicit messages with former boyfriend Sean "Diddy" Combs. The case continues to shed light on their allegedly dark and abusive relationship that lasted over a decade. Combs’ sex trafficking trial in Manhattan is expected to last about two months. Cassie Diddy text messages Combs’ lawyers are seeking to portray Cassie as a willing participant in Combs’ lifestyle, and say that while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs' lawyers began questioning the prosecution's star witness, and some of the text messages read on Thursday expressed enthusiasm for Combs-directed encounters with other men that she previously testified had disgusted her. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs said in email and text exchanges, while Cassie recited what she wrote to him. In one from August 2009, Combs asked her: "When do you want to freak off? Lol." "I’m always ready to freak off," she replied. Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message to Combs. "I can’t wait to watch you. I want you to get real hott," he replied. "Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable," she said. Cassie asked for a short break, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted, after yet more explicit messages were shown. This came a day after she was made to see still images from videos of sexual encounters during prosecutors’ questioning. Estevao also had Cassie read through warm and loving messages with Combs early in their relationship. Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, with a larger-than-life personality. At the time, she said, "I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much." Diddy Trial updates Dig deeper: Prior to the start of the trial, Combs’ lawyers made clear that they intended to label a lot of the sexual behavior of their client as part of the swingers lifestyle. Under questioning, Cassie said that on at least four occasions during their relationship, she watched Diddy have sex with other women. She said Diddy told her it was part of a "swingers lifestyle." Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought "freak-offs" were related to the swingers lifestyle. "In a sexual way," Cassie responded, before adding: "They’re very different." Thursday's testimony and evidence was in contrast to the violence and shame Cassie said accompanied "hundreds" of her encounters with male sex workers that Combs watched and controlled during their relationship — which stretched from 2007 to 2018 and started when she was 19, and he was in his 30s. She said the drug-fueled "freak-offs" would last hours and even days, with her sometimes taking IV fluids to recover and eventually developing an opioid addiction because it made her "feel numb" afterward. LiveNOW's Andy Mac talks to FOX 5's Lisa Evers and TMZ's Michael Babcock on the latest.