Source: Kevin Winter / Getty
Now that Diddy is facing allegations that he physically and sexually abused his former artist and one-time girlfriend Cassie Ventura, other artists he worked with are speaking out. Aubrey O’Day of Danity Kane said that she’s proud of Cassie for coming forward.
“It isn’t easy to take on one of the most powerful people in this industry and be honest about your experience with them. I know what her heart is feeling right now because I have done so as well,” she said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “May her voice bring all the others to the table, so we can start having more transparent conversations about what is actually happening behind the scenes. There is a lot more to all of our stories!”
On her social media, O’Day posted an image with the allegations, saying, “I stay tryin’ to tell y’all.”
https://twitter.com/AubreyODay/status/1725278307900375098
Danity Kane is the girl group quintet Diddy created in the third season of his popular MTV show Making the Band in 2005. The group achieved success by going #1 on the Billboard charts in their self-titled debut, which included the top 10 single “Showstopper.” Their second album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, also debuted at #1 on the strength of another top 10 hit, “Damaged.”
Internal tensions roiled the band, and it eventually reformed as a trio. O’Day left in 2008, returned to join the newly configured lineup in 2013, and then formed a duo with Dawn Richard under the Danity Kane name in 2020. But they’ve released nothing else since then.
Richard also expressed her support for Ventura, tweeting, “Praying for Cassie and her family, for peace and healing. You are beautiful and brave.”
On the Call Her Daddy podcast last December, O’Day told host Alex Cooper that she left the group because she wouldn’t do “what was expected of her.”
Given the current allegations, the interview revealed more of what it was like to be a woman in Diddy’s orbit, whether on a professional or personal level.
“I have such a love/hate with it all,” O’Day said. “I don’t think I would have been able to be so successful in so many other areas had I not been trained under Diddy. He was the hardest person that you can work for. And it was torture. Not the work part of it, but the other stuff. Mind games. All the girls were so divided…there was a lot of betrayal and a lot of lies.”
Diddy and Cassie have since settled the lawsuit that accuses him of rape and sexual abuse throughout their 10-year relationship.
“Money > accountability. Every time,” O’Day wrote via her Instagram Story upon the settlement. “Welcome to another chapter of the system is well in place.”
