By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — R&B singer Cassie delved into text messages with her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs as she resumed testifying in his sex trafficking trial Friday, saying she told him “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child” after he beat her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Cassie was back on the witness stand for a second day of cross-examination by Combs’ lawyers, after having been forced the day before to read aloud explicit and lurid messages she sent Combs during their tumultuous, nearly 11-year relationship that ended in 2018.

The singer is the prosecution’s star witness. Her lawsuit in 2023 accused Combs of physical and sexual abuse, and it set in motion the investigation which culminated in this month’s trial. Several other women who accuse him of abuse are set to testify.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His defense says that, although he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. And Combs insists all the sex was consensual.

Sean Diddy’Combs, far left, and attorney Marc Agnifilo, right, sit at the defense table during witness testimony in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP) 

Through text messages read aloud in court Friday, Combs’ attorney Anna Estevao showed jurors that Combs and Cassie were expressing love to one another just days after the Los Angeles hotel attack as they tried to recover from the episode. Cassie told Combs in one text: “We need a different vibe from Friday.”

Estevao had Cassie read aloud a text message in which she complained that Combs was out of control from drugs and alcohol that day and told him: “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child.”

In a hotel security video, Combs can be seen slinging Cassie to the floor, kicking her and dragging her into a hotel hallway. After the video was publicly released last year, Combs apologized and said he was “disgusted” by his actions.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

Combs’ lawyers are seeking to portray Cassie to the jury as a willing and eager participant in the hip-hop mogul’s sexual lifestyle. Prosecutors allege he exploited his status as a music executive and businessman to violently force Cassie and other women into drug-fueled encounters with male sex workers that he called “freak-offs,” which sometimes lasted days as Combs watched and directed.

On Thursday, Estevao presented Cassie with sexual texts she sent Combs before the freak-off at the hotel that preceded the assault. Cassie also read texts she sent him expressing enthusiasm for the sexual encounters.

Cassie has testified that she felt forced by Combs into these encounters. She said she was worried about Combs beating her and that he threatened to publicly release videos of the encounters.

Jurors heard on Friday a 2013 recording of Cassie screaming at a friend who said he’d seen a video of her performing sex acts. In the recording, made by Cassie, the man claimed to have the video on his phone. Cassie is heard pleading to see the video and then threatening to kill him if it became public.

“I’ve never killed anyone in my life, but I will kill you,” Cassie told the man, punctuating her threats with profanity.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has been on the witness stand since Tuesday and the cross-examination by the defense began Thursday.

Before the trial resumed, prosecutors asked the judge to make sure Cassie’s testimony ends on Friday They said there’s a risk of a mistrial if Cassie, who is pregnant and nearing the birth of her third child, went into labor over the weekend.

Judge Arun Subramanian asked Combs’ attorney Friday morning if they had any issue finishing by the end of the day, but they did not directly answer the question.

Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.

Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.