Cassie Ventura in 2022; Johnny Nunez/WireImage

In the final hour of a grueling four-day testimony, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s stoic demeanor stalled as she began to sob quietly. Those of us in the overspill courtroom of the Southern District of New York could have heard a pin drop.

Ventura, an R&B singer, is a key witness in the case against entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in which he faces five counts of federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation for purposes of prostitution.

Eight-and-a-half months pregnant, a soft-spoken but determined Ventura answered a steady stream of questions about her on-and-off 11-year relationship with the billionaire founder of Bad Boy Records, a music label that signed hundreds of culture-changing artists, including in pop, rap, and hip-hop.

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