‘This was a lie’: Furious stars denounce Diddy

Disturbing surveillance video shows Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel corridor in March 2016, corroborating allegations she made in a now-settled lawsuit late last year.

Diddy, dressed only in a towel, is shown hitting, dragging and kicking the singer known as Cassie through a hotel corridor in the disturbing footage.

Fellow rapper 50 Cent had a simple yet brutal response to the video’s release today, sharing Diddy’s earlier statement protesting his innocence to his social media channels.

“Enough is Enough,” Diddy wrote in the statement, issued in December last year as he faced a sexual abuse lawsuit.“Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday,” Diddy wrote in the statement. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

50 Cent today tweeted out that statement with the caption: “The lie detector test has determined this was a lie …. Maury vibes,” a reference to the US daytime show Maury Povich, which frequently has guests sit lie detector tests.

50 Cent also shared the horrifying hotel CCTV footage to his social media accounts, writing: “Now I’m sure puffy didn’t do it, he is innocent this proves nothing! This is what his lawyers are gonna say. God help us all.”

Another of Diddy’s longtime adversaries, singer Aubrey O’Day, also spoke out about the newly-surfaced footage today.O’Day shot to fame in the noughties girl group Danity Kane, which was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records label. Since leaving the group, she’s been a vocal critic of the rapper and music mogul.

“The picture is getting a lot more clear for you all I can imagine. abuse survivors or anyone that triggers easily might not want to watch (images are disturbing). #Cassie #diddy #kimporter prayers up for all his victims,” O’Day wrote on social media, sharing the footage with her followers.

Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski wrote a one-word response to the video on social media: “monster.”

Last month, singer Kesha changed perhaps her most famous song lyric during an appearance at Coachella festival, modifying the opening line of her hit Tik Tok to denounce Combs: “ “Wake up in the morning like, f**k P Diddy,” she sang.

And while Cassie herself hasn’t yet publicly spoken out about the video’s release, her husband of almost five years, Alex Fine, took to Instagram today to share a “letter to women and children” he actually wrote “awhile [sic] back.”

“Men who hit women aren’t men. Men who enable it and protect those people aren’t men,” the actor wrote, saying that “violence against women shouldn’t be inevitable.”

He urged his followers to “check your brothers, your friends, and your family” because “our daughters, sisters, mothers, and wives should feel protected and loved.”

“Hold the women in your life with the upmost regard. Men who hurt women hate women,” he wrote.

In a lawsuit filed in November last year, Cassie alleged Combs subjected her to more than a decade of abuse and coercion, including a 2018 sexual assault.

Combs vehemently denied all accusations against him, and the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum.

After the settlement, Combs’ lawyer said in a statement to CNN that the decision to settle the lawsuit was “is in no way an admission of wrongdoing”.

“Mr Combs’ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms Ventura the best,” the lawyer said.

Cassie, who scored an Australian hit with her 2006 debut single Me & U, met Diddy when she was 19 and he was 37, the pair entering into a romantic relationship after he’d signed her to his label.