Following the release of the footage depicting rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting Cassie, the singer has made her first public statement.
Famous actress Casandra Ventura revealed that she was “broken down to someone I never thought would become” due to her experience with domestic abuse.
CNN unveiled the video of the 2016 attack last week. Ms Ventura had previously filed a lawsuit last year accusing her ex-boyfriend and producer of assaulting her.
Diddy apologized over the weekend, commenting in an Instagram video: “I was disgusted when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”
Ms Ventura commended her family, friends, and the general public for their support in an Instagram-posted statement.
“The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning,” she said.
“Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past.”
“My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in,” Ms Ventura wrote.
“This healing journey is never ending, but this support means everything to me.”
Mr Combs stated in his apology, “I went and I sought out professional help… I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.”
Lawyers for Ms Ventura told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that Diddy’s statement was “more about himself than the many people he has hurt”.
“When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday,” attorney Meredith Firetog pointed out.
The musician and businessman Sean “Diddy” Combs has been the subject of multiple accusations, the most recent of which was made public earlier this week by a model who claimed that he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2003.
In her lawsuit, Crystal McKinney alleged that Mr Combs had invited her to his studio in New York and had poured her booze and pot until she passed out.
As part of their investigation into human trafficking, federal agents raided his residences in Miami and Los Angeles last month.
