Sean “Diddy” Combs has issued an apology, two days after a 2016 video of him violently assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura became public.
The rapper and businessman was bleary-eyed as he addressed the camera in a Sunday morning post which was captioned, “I’m truly sorry.”
In the one-minute clip, he told viewers he was “disgusted” with himself and was taking “full responsibility” for his actions, which he said happened during some of “the darkest times” of his life.
“I was fucked up,” he said in the video, which makes no direct mention of Ventura or the harm she suffered. “I mean I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable.”
“I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” the recording artist went on. “I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I am disgusted now.”
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In the video, Diddy said he sought out “professional help,” and entered both therapy and rehab after the incident, adding that he also “had to ask God for his mercy and grace,” and was “committed to be a better man each and everyday.”
“I’m not asking for forgiveness,” he said before signing off. “I’m truly sorry.”
On Friday, CNN released disturbing footage of Diddy brutally attacking Ventura in the halls of a now-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles.
The damning video came six months after Ventura accused Diddy of abuse in a federal lawsuit which alleges he sexually, physically and emotionally abused the singer during their decade-long, on-and-off relationship.
Combs and Ventura reached an undisclosed settlement just one day after her filing.
At the time, Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, said the decision to settle a lawsuit was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”
The rapper is currently facing five other civil suits, which accuse him of a range of sexual misconduct, coercion and other illegal behavior.
Not long after the post, the legal firm who represented Ventura against Combs released a statement, calling his apology desperate and “disingenuous.”
“Combs’ most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt,” Meredith Firetog, a partner at Wigdor LLP, told Deadline.
“When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday. That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words.”
