It was a dramatic piece of tape, and lawyers defending Sean "Diddy" Combs want the jury to view it as undercutting the core of the sex-trafficking case against the rap mogul, who could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
As part of their effort to cast doubt on claims by Combs' ex-girlfriend that she was in a coercive relationship with Combs, marked by her being forced to participate in sex with male prostitutes, defense attorneys Thursday played an audio recording of Combs suggesting she should break off their romance.
"Move on," Combs' voice could be heard by jurors listening to the audio files.
"Just focus on what, at the end of the day, will make you feel better," Combs was heard saying. "How can we get to a solution where you can move on? I don't want to be in a relationship like this…End this cycle. Move on with your life so that you don't feel like I wasted your life."
Testifying under the pseudonym "Jane" for a marathon six days on the witness stand, she said her relationship with Combs "started to deteriorate" in December 2023, and she tried to be candid about the way she felt about the drug-fueled orgies -- she called "hotel nights" -- that Combs made her participate in. Combs did not realize that was how she felt, Jane told the jurors.
"He had indicated to you he wasn't aware of how you were feeling," defense attorney Teny Geragos said.
Jane responded, "Yes."
"He did not want you to be upset," Geragos said.
"Yes," Jane answered again.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution in a sensational case that has captured headlines from the start. Combs has pleaded not guilty and insists that any sex act, no matter how far out of the mainstream, were private matters among consenting adults.
Jane, like witnesses before her, has laid out deeply intimate and disturbing details about what she says happened behind closed doors with the rap mogul and fashion tastemaker who has been locked up since September 2024.
The ex-girlfriend painted an intense picture of how Combs allegedly unraveled during their three-year relationship, as he started to face public scrutiny over his private life, civil lawsuits and the federal criminal investigation that has placed him in a fight for his life in a Manhattan courtroom.
Testifying through tears and sobs, Jane told the jury Thursday that she would give up all the money, vacations and gifts Combs offered her during their relationship if it meant she had never had to have sex with a stranger during the dayslong sex parties, she said, Combs pressured her to participate in.
Jane told the jury she took part in the orgies because Combs had threatened to withhold her exorbitant rent payments or release a tape of her having sex. She said he even violently attacked her once.
Combs' attorneys spent days trying to cast doubt on those claims by getting her to admit that her relationship was complex and even loving. Jane -- one of the prosecution's key witnesses -- admitted she still loves Combs, deeply wanted to have a normal relationship with the rap mogul, and was even jealous of the time he spent with other women.
"I was just made to be, just carry this impossible pressure and they weren't asked to hold any of that pressure like I did," Jane testified. "I just thought it was unfair. All the nights with these men."
As the trial nears the end of its sixth week, prosecutors suggested they could rest their case sometime next week. Court will resume Friday with a federal agent and Jonathan Perez, one of Combs' assistants and a summary witness.
Attorneys for Combs have not said whether the rapper would testify on his own behalf or what they have in store for the jury before the trial ends.
As defense questioning came to a close, they released two audio recordings of Combs that had been played for the jury earlier this week. The lawyers argued the recordings highlight how both Jane and Combs were willing participants in the "hotel nights" that featured witnesses engaging in various sex acts with male prostitutes while Combs watched, masturbated and swapped with the escorts.
Jane testified that she would not have traveled with Combs to the Turks and Caicos had she known a male escort would show up. Combs' lawyers, however, played for the jury a voice note she sent to Combs after the trip, saying, "I had so, so, so much fun with you."
Jurors also heard an effusive voice memo from Combs, thanking Jane for coming on the trip, and said she was his "crack pipe."
"Hey baby, we had a great time. Stay in the light. Um, it's all good. Get your rest. You are the crack pipe. That's my new name for you, crack pipe, or should I call you CP," Combs was heard in the March 2023 audio recording.
"To your knowledge, what was he saying you're the crack pipe? He had an addiction to you, is that what you understood?" Combs' attorney Teny Geragos asked.
"Yeah, to my sex," Jane responded. In the recording, Combs also referenced their love "contract," which, Jane explained, was the agreement they reached for Combs to pay her $10,000 monthly rent.
In another recording, taken in 2021, Combs is heard asking for Jane to set up a "hotel night" with a male escort named Don.
"I'm trying to make excuses to get out of this thing that he's encouraging for me to set up," she testified after the message was played.
As the testimony in Combs' criminal trial continued Thursday, another former girlfriend of the rap mogul re-filed a civil lawsuit against him, alleging she was coerced into traveling to see him and into having sex with him.
Chelsea Lovelace, whose name has been mentioned by Jane at Combs' criminal trial, accused Combs of drugging her, getting her pregnant and then urging her to abort the pregnancy before she suffered a miscarriage.
The civil complaint echoes the criminal charges Combs faces, with Lovelace alleging Combs was assisted by employees to induce her to do things against her will and forced her to take drugs. She alleges Combs slapped her and paid her an allowance, "which he used to control her, as she cut back on working." Lovelace is seeking unspecified damages for sexual assault, battery, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Lovelace originally filed her lawsuit under a pseudonym last year. Combs has denied wrongdoing and attempted to dismiss the lawsuit.
The lawsuit adds to the growing list of civil lawsuits Combs faces in addition to the federal criminal case for which he is on trial. At least 59 different people -- 32 women and 27 men–– have accused Combs of sexual assault over the last three decades and have active lawsuits pending, according to court records reviewed by ABC News.
The first two hours of court on Thursday were dominated by a closed-door conversation between the judge overseeing the case, Combs' lawyers and federal prosecutors.
According to defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, the issue revolved around a January 2024 incident that "took place behind closed doors in a hotel room but there were other people there."
Agnifilo spoke vaguely about it because the judge suggested he had ruled certain details must remain undisclosed as part of his order allowing Jane to testify under a pseudonym. Agnifilo pushed the issue to be fully aired in the courtroom.
"Part of the reason that trials are fully public is so if other people realize they know something about an event discussed in a public courtroom, they can come forward and share their recollection about it," Agnifilo said. "That is kind of the practical side to the constitutional right to a public trial. It's public for a reason."
Prosecutor Maureen Comey disagreed, saying sufficient information about Jane and the event in question has been revealed. Disclosing more, she said, is a "pretense to attempt to harass and intimidate this witness."
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian agreed with federal prosecutors. After that, Jane returned to the witness stand, where Geragos asked her about a January 2024 trip to Las Vegas that she took with an unnamed rapper.
During a break in her relationship with Combs, Jane said she flew to Sin City on the second rapper's private plane, attended a birthday dinner, visited a strip club, and returned to the rapper's hotel room. There, she said, she found an escort named Anton – an escort she had slept with during a "hotel night" with Combs – having sex with a woman while about a half dozen people watched.
In discussing the episode during direct examination, Jane said she briefly flirted with the rapper but quickly left the room. What was not discussed until defense questioning on Thursday was Jane's admission that she had flashed her breasts to the room before taking off.
"I think he said something along the lines of that he thought I was beautiful, and he wanted to blank me," Jane testified.
"And the rapper told you in that moment he had always had a crush on you?" Geragos asked.
"Yes," she said.
Jane said she did not tell Combs about the episode until June 2024, after she testified, Combs physically assaulted her, leaving her with welts and a black eye. After an explosive fight, which Jane admitted she first initiated – she testified that Combs forced her to have sex with Anton, the same male escort she saw in Vegas.
Before any sexual contact with Anton, Jane said she had told Combs about seeing Anton at the January party in Las Vegas.
Geragos quoted Combs as saying, "I can't believe you went to another man's freak-off." Combs and other witnesses have referred to "hotel nights" as "freak-offs."
Combs was so angry that Jane testified, Combs left without the two of them having sex at the end of the party.
Geragos also asked Jane about the alcohol she and Combs consumed before the fight – two glasses of champagne and two or three shots of tequila each – and the following sexual encounter. Defense attorneys have argued that Combs' violence was driven by his drug addiction and jealousy, rather than a desire to coerce the women into sex.