Celebrity Stylist Says Diddy Frequently Called Cassie a ‘Bitch’

Photo: Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

For weekly updates on all the most pivotal and dramatic moments from Diddy’s trial, sign up for our newsletter: Court Appearances: United States v. Diddy, and check out the rest of our trial coverage here.

Babygirl. CC. Cass. Bitch. Slut. Ho. These were some of the names that celebrity stylist Deonte Nash recalled Sean “Diddy” Combs calling his longtime girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, over his ten years working with them.

Nash’s recollection came on May 28 during Diddy’s sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court, when he was called as a witness. The prosecution’s questioning of Nash led to answers that backed Cassie’s abuse allegations.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey asked Nash: How often did Diddy call Cassie a bitch?

“Um, quite frequently. That was his fave,” said Nash, who bounded into court just after 12 p.m. in a white-on-white ensemble. “Bitch, stop playing with me” was one of Diddy’s refrains. “Ho” and “slut” were also hurled at Cassie quite a few times, Nash recalled. “He told her she was just an outright ho,” he said. When Diddy said these things, he would be “irate.” Cassie, on the other hand, receded into herself. Sometimes, she would cry. Other times, she would “go into a depressive persona,” Nash said.

Nash said he recalled Diddy threatening Cassie and her family. “He would beat her ass” was one admonition. Diddy also allegedly warned “that he would get her parents fired from their jobs” by sending their employers Cassie’s sex tapes. Diddy also tried controlling their movements. After Cassie, Nash, and Rita Ora went out to a club, Diddy called and demanded that Cassie go back to his house. “She started to panic.” Diddy called a second time and spoke with Nash. Diddy accused them of “wildin’” and told Nash that he needed to stay home since “every time I go out, that bitch wanna go out.” He said Cassie got her stuff and left for Diddy’s house.

Nash, who was affable on the stand, beaming when he reflected on certain styling coups, also described how Diddy had final say on Cassie’s look. At a Vanity Fair party, Diddy admonished Nash because Cassie’s hair was not in keeping with his dictum.

“She looked bomb — her hair was down, cut straight,” Nash said, but “she ‘needed’ to wear her hair up.” Diddy “grabbed me by my jacket, lifting me up,” Nash said. “I just started asking people in the party for hair pins.”

Nash also discussed a 2013 incident between Diddy and Cassie that left the singer bleeding from her head. Cassie discussed this same incident in her direct testimony. Nash told jurors that he and “Mia,” one of Combs’s assistants at the time, were at Cassie’s apartment, packing for her travel expenses for a music festival. She was sleeping on the sofa when he heard a knock. Nash opened the door and saw Diddy. He entered the apartment.

“Bitch, didn’t I tell you to answer the phone?” Nash remembered Diddy saying. Diddy then grabbed Cassie by the hair, pulled her off the couch, and started hitting her. Nash, Cassie, and Mia ran into the bedroom and tried closing the door. Diddy pushed it open and kept laying into Cassie “with his fists, and kicking her.” Nash jumped on Diddy’s back to stop him. Diddy threw him off. Mia jumped on Diddy’s back as well. She too was thrown off. Diddy kept hitting Cassie. Her head hit the bed frame. “When he noticed blood, he just panicked,” Nash said. There was blood coming out of Cassie’s head. “A lot,” Nash said. Diddy said, “Look what y’all made me do.” Nash tried to call 911, and Diddy told him to hang up. He said that Cassie would go to a plastic surgeon with D-Roc, his security guard and friend. Cassie left. When Cassie ultimately returned home, “she had stitches on her forehead, she had a gash on her forehead,” Nash said, touching his eyebrow area. Another time, Nash said that Diddy, enraged about him and Cassie going out on the town, “started choking me out.” Nash resumes his testimony on Thursday.

After Nash’s time on the stand wraps, prosecutors are expected to call “Mia,” a former Diddy assistant who claims that he sexually assaulted her while she was working with him. This Mia’s allegations were detailed during prosecutor Emily Johnson’s opening statement on May 12, and there is no confirmation that it is the same Mia mentioned in Nash’s testimony. Johnson said that Mia worked as Diddy’s personal assistant for years. “Mia is just beginning to grapple with the times the defendant forced himself on her sexually,” Johnson told jurors. “Mia will tell you how she could not talk about what happened to her until recently, how she wanted to take the secret of what the defendant did to her to her grave.” Combs “forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will,” Johnson alleged.

“Mia”’s abuse allegations are in keeping with prosecution testimony that has cast Diddy as violent. Cassie, Diddy’s ex and the prosecutors’ star witness, alleged he raped her in 2018 after their breakup. Several of Diddy’s former employees described witnessing violence against Cassie. One of them, Capricorn Clark, testified on Tuesday that Diddy kicked Cassie after finding out she was dating Kid Cudi. Clark said Diddy forced her into a car with him and a bodyguard and then drove to Kid Cudi’s house with the intent of killing him. “I was kidnapped,” she said. Clark also described several incidents where Diddy threatened her life.