Kid Cudi has opened up about testifying at disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ high-profile sex trafficking trial in May.
The 41-year-old “Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare)” rapper took the stand at the eight-week trial in support of Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, whom he briefly dated in 2011 when she was reportedly on a break from her relationship with the record producer.
“I was there because I had to be,” Cudi told podcaster Alex Cooper on Wednesday’s episode of Call Her Daddy. “At first, they asked, and I said no. They asked again. I said no. Then I got subpoenaed and I was like, ‘F***k! S***! No!’”
He said he hated “every minute of it,” again stressing that “I did not want to do it.”
However, once he sat in the witness box, his perspective shifted after realizing he needed to “look out for” Ventura, 38.
“I’m here to support Cassie. Cassie is my friend. I love her, and I want to see her do well,” Cudi remembered thinking. “When I saw her get married, I was so happy for her, you know, that she found someone, her person. When I saw that she was having kids, I was like, ‘Aw, this is so awesome.’
“I’ve always just wanted to see her thrive and do well and be happy, you know, because I know she was living a nightmare,” he added. “And I just was there to support her. That’s what kind of gave me peace with it when I sat down in that chair.”
Months after his September 2024 arrest on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Diddy went to trial. The 55-year-old record executive was ultimately convicted on two counts of prostitution-related charges but acquitted of more serious counts of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
Throughout the weeks-long trial, jurors heard bombshell testimony from a number of witnesses, including star witness Ventura, who dated Diddy on-and-off from 2007 to 2018.
The R&B singer spent four days testifying against Diddy, sharing explosive and harrowing claims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her former partner.
At one point, she alleged that he abused her after learning about her relationship with Cudi.
During Cudi’s testimony, he addressed Ventura’s allegations that Diddy retaliated against their relationship by bombing Cudi’s car, saying he believed Diddy had “something to do with” the “intentional” incident that left his car damaged beyond repair.
“I knew he had something to do with it,” Cudi testified.
Elsewhere in the podcast interview, in promotion of his debut memoir, Cudi: The Memoir, the “Day ‘N’ Nite” artist further touched on his “chaotic” and “intense” relationship with Ventura.
He said they began dating during a time when he was dealing with his “own personal s***,” so his mindset going into their relationship was “like f*** it. I was just willing to walk into the fire.”
“Before all this stuff happened, and it came out again,” Cudi said, appearing to refer to Diddy’s recent legal reckonings, “I thought about it as like just some wild s*** that happened in my rock ‘n’ roll life. It’s just some crazy s*** that happened.”
