Former Danity Kane star Aubrey O’Day has spoken out on Cassie‘s allegations of rape against Sean “Diddy” Combs. “Been trynna tell y’all for years. Prayers up for this queen @cassie,” the 39-year-old captioned a Thursday, November 16 Instagram Story. Adding to her first post, she wrote, “Only day ya’ll are gonna put some respect on my name when I tell you things.”
Court documents show that Cassie, 37, sued Diddy, 54, alleging she was “a victim of sex trafficking” that took place as a result of her relationship with the celebrity. Additionally, the singer, real name Casandra Ventura, accused Diddy of having raped her in 2018. “After years in silence and darkness,” she said in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday. “I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.”
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Previously, O’Day appeared on Diddy’s reality show Making the Band 3, which aired from 2005 to 2006. In season 3, O’Day became a rising star, signing with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records as a member of the five-member group Danity Kane alongside Dawn Richard and Shannon Bex. Then, during the Making the Band 4 finale in 2008, Diddy revealed O’Day had been booted from the group.
“If u think what made the cut was as ugly as it got … you’re wrong,” O’Day said on Thursday, showing a Making the Band clip of a tense exchange between her and Diddy. “He was right, it gets dark and lonely.” In a second statement provided to Rolling Stone, O’Day stated that she was “in complete support” of Cassie throughout the legal proceedings.
“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 noted. “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!”
During an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast last year, O’Day claimed she had been fired from Danity Kane since she “wasn’t willing to do what was expected of [her] — not talent-wise, but in other areas.” Moreover, she argued that she was “the only girl in those types of positions” at the time since she was “young and impressionable.”
“You know, I have such a love-hate [relationship] with it all because I don’t think I would’ve been able to be so successful in so many other areas had I not been trained under Diddy,” O’Day said on the podcast. “He was the hardest person that you can work for, and it was torture. And not the work part of it, but the other stuff — mind games.”
After Sony purchased Bad Boy, O’Day claimed Diddy forced her to sign an NDA in exchange for publishing rights for Danity Kane. “I have to release him for any claims or wrongdoings or actions prior to the date of the release,” she said on the OnlyStans podcast in September. “I have to sign an NDA that I will never disparage Puff, Bad Boy, Janice Combs, or Justin Combs Music, or EMI, or Sony ever in public.” Diddy did not address O’Day’s comments at the time, but he has denied Cassie’s allegations.