The "freak offs" — or drug-fueled sexual encounters Combs allegedly asked Cassie Ventura to participate in — could range from 36 hours up to four days, forcing Ventura to spend "a big chunk of her life" recovering from the drug use and dehydration and sleep deprivation, she testified.

“The freak offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Ventura said.

Underscoring just how much control she says Combs had over her, Cassie Ventura testified that the music mogul paid the rent for her apartments in New York and later Los Angeles — and had his own set of keys that he used “whenever he wanted.”

Combs would make a lot of unannounced visits, Ventura said, and she was never sure what kind of mood he'd be in.

"It was a stomach-in-knots moment," Ventura told the court, because she "didn’t know what was going to come of the visit."

As a musician, Cassie Ventura had a record deal with Combs's company, Bad Boy Entertainment. Ventura testified that she recorded "hundreds of songs." While some of them were released, others "didn't see the light of day."

Out of her 10-album deal with Bad Boy Records, only one, her eponymous 2006 debut, was released — a decision made by Combs, she said. When asked how this affected her financially, Ventura said her career was stifled.

The jury has been dismissed for a lunch break. The trial will resume with testimony from Cassie Ventura at 1 p.m. ET.

Cassie Ventura testified about the complexity of the relationship between her and Combs. At first, she said she wanted to be around Combs because “he was just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have my career in his hands.”

But then Ventura said she started to "experience a different side of him, which was his abusive side."

She described Combs's moods to be extreme. If she didn't answer Combs's phone calls, he would call her "incessantly" or have his staff track her down.

Ventura added: "Make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face."

Cassie Ventura testified that she met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 36. She said she knew him as a "larger-than-life" entrepreneur and musician.

“I didn’t know too much about him personally,” she said.

She signed a 10-album deal with his label, Bad Boy Records, in 2006. (She would go on to release just one album.)

Ventura said it was a professional relationship until her 21st birthday in August 2007, when Combs kissed her in a bathroom of his hotel suite in Las Vegas. Ventura said that she cried and ran off.

“I was just really confused at the time,” she said. "And young."

Then, on a trip to Miami where she and Combs were partying with other friends, he gave her a "blue dolphin" ecstasy pill, and they had sex for the first time.

Cassie Ventura testified about the "freak offs" — or drug-fueled sexual performances — that Combs asked her to engage in for him. Ventura said that at first Combs was in charge of hiring escorts for the so-called freak offs, but that it eventually became her responsibility.

Ventura was 22 years old when Combs first asked her to participate in a freak off.

She described her nervousness and confusion about taking part but also didn't think she could say no, given his propensity for violence. “It got to a point where I just didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could be or what ‘no’ could turn into,” she testified.

Ventura also testified that she was "controlled" by Combs. “Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was career, the way I dressed, everything," Ventura said. "I just didn’t have much say in it at the time.”

Under direct questioning from prosecutor Emily Johnson, Cassie Ventura testified that her relationship with Combs, which lasted a little over 10 years, often became "violent."

Their arguments, Ventura said, "would usually result in some sort of physical abuse," with Combs kicking and dragging her and smashing her head into the ground.

Asked how frequently these arguments would result in violence, Ventura replied: “Too frequently.”

The prosecution has called its next witness: Casandra Ventura — the R&B singer known as Cassie, Combs's ex-girlfriend and one of the key figures in the government's case.

Ventura's explosive 2023 lawsuit accusing Combs of rape, abuse and sex trafficking was quickly settled. But it was the first of dozens of civil suits against him — setting the stage for his criminal prosecution.

During her opening statement Monday, prosecutor Emily Johnson described in detail the physical abuse the R&B singer endured, including the 2016 incident in which Combs was captured on security video violently assaulting her in a hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.

The jury also saw video footage of that incident and heard testimony from a security guard who encountered the couple.

Ventura is pregnant with her third child and due to deliver next month.

Before the trial resumed Tuesday morning, Combs's defense team requested that the prosecution's star witness, Cassie Ventura, who is eight months pregnant, be seated on the witness stand before the jury enters the courtroom.

“Because I think there is a prejudicial quality,” Combs's defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told Judge Arun Subramanian. "Pregnancy is beautiful and wonderful. It also is a source of potential sympathy."

During a brief break in the trial Tuesday morning, Combs's defense team asked the judge if Ventura's husband, Alex Fine, could be barred from the courtroom during her testimony. Fine will be allowed to sit in the courtroom for part of her testimony.

Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed the jury for a 10-minute break before the next witness is called.

The prosecution's second witness has finished testifying and stepped down from the witness stand. Daniel Phillip is the male escort who is alleged to have had several sexual encounters with Cassie Ventura while Combs watched.

During cross-examination by Combs's defense attorney Xavier Donaldson, Phillip was pressed on his feelings for Ventura, implying he wanted to be with her romantically and isolate her from Combs. Phillip denied that but testified, “I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”

Combs's defense lawyer, Xavier Donaldson, is cross-examining Daniel Phillip, the male escort who testified he was paid by Cassie Ventura to have sex with her while Combs watched.

Prosecutors are trying to prove that Combs forced Ventura into these sexual encounters with Phillip. In Donaldson's cross-examination of Phillip, he was trying to establish that Ventura was not forced by Combs and was a willing participant.

Phillips testified that Ventura was the one who paid him and agreed that she was not drunk or high.

“Is it fair to say she was in complete control of everything she did?” Donaldson asked.

“I cannot say that,” Phillip replied.

Despite its high profile, the Sean "Diddy" Combs federal sex trafficking trial isn't being televised because broadcasting of federal court proceedings is generally prohibited under a rule adopted by U.S. judges in the 1940s.

That means throughout the eight-week trial, the only images you'll see from inside the courtroom will be from sketch artists (like this one by Jane Rosenberg), and updates will be delivered via reporters in the courtroom.

Before witness testimony resumed, Judge Arun Subramanian discussed the issue of how to handle the release of sexually explicit material in the trial.

Attorneys for both the prosecution and defense want that material viewed only by members of the jury, but Subramanian said he’s inclined to grant a request by more than a dozen media outlets for access to sexually explicit footage and images that are expected to be submitted as evidence.

"There is a heightened First Amendment concern," Subramanian said.

But the judge said he will wait to issue a final decision on the matter.

Day 2 of Sean Combs's criminal trial starts with Combs's defense attorney Xavier Donaldson resuming cross-examination of Daniel Phillip, a male escort who claims he was paid by Cassie Ventura to have sex with her while Sean Combs watched.

Phillip was ordered by Judge Arun Subramanian not to speak to his attorney before he comes back to testify again.

Relatives of Sean "Diddy" Combs, including his mother, Janice Combs, and several of his children, were in court on Monday for the start of his criminal trial and are back for Tuesday’s proceedings.

• Court will resume at 9:30 a.m. ET.

• Daniel Phillip, a male revue manager and the prosecution's second witness, will return to the stand to continue testifying under cross-examination.

• He has testified that he was paid by Cassie Ventura to have sex with her while Combs watched.

• Ventura, Combs's ex-girlfriend and one of the key witnesses in the government's case, is expected to be called to testify Tuesday.

• On Monday, the jury was shown footage from a 2016 surveillance video showing Combs assaulting Ventura in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Calif.

• Israel Florez, a former hotel security guard, testified that he saw Ventura leave the hotel with a "purple" eye, and that Combs offered him a wad of cash he interpreted as a bribe to keep quiet.

The first day of Combs's criminal trial wrapped for the day as scheduled at 5 p.m. ET. Judge Arun Subramanian instructed jurors not to discuss or read about the case after being dismissed.

The court is back after a short break, and Combs's defense attorney Xavier Donaldson has begun cross-examination of Daniel Phillip, the prosecution's second witness.