Former USC and NFL linebacker Keith Browner died Tuesday morning in San Leandro, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed Wednesday. He was 63.
Keith Browner Jr. told TMZ that he talked to his father Monday night when the elder Browning was having stomach problems, vomiting and feeling tired. Browner Jr. said his father told him he would go to the hospital the next morning.
Browner was getting ready to go to the hospital Tuesday morning, according to TMZ, “when he curled over the side of a chair and collapsed to the floor next to his girlfriend.” TMZ also reported that “it appears” Browner suffered a heart attack and that his death was “unexpected and sudden.”
Alameda County authorities provided no cause of death Wednesday.
Born in Warren, Ohio, Browner was the fifth of six brothers, all of whom played college football and four of whom went on to play in the NFL. A second-round pick (30th overall) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1984, Browner also played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders and San Diego Chargers during a five-year NFL career.
Oldest brother Ross Browner spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers. Jimmie Browner Jr. played two years with the Bengals. Joey Browner was a six-time Pro Bowl player who spent nine seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and one with the Buccaneers.
Browner Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a college and pro football player. A standout defensive end at Dorsey High, Browner Jr. played three seasons at California and one season with the Houston Texans.
A nephew, Ross Browner’s son Max Starks, played nine years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one for the St. Louis Rams.
Browner — who was 14 when his father, Jimmie, died of cancer at age 49 — said his mother Julia was the driving force behind her sons’ passion for the sport.
“She’s the one who always urged us to play,” he told the Dayton Daily News in 2023, “and sometimes she’d be right out there with us in the yard when we were having pick-up games.”
A three-sport standout at Warren Harding High, Browner spent four seasons at USC (1980-83), overlapping with brother Joey for the first three. He was named a captain for his final season and finished his college career with six interceptions in 34 games played.
Browner made the NFL’s all-rookie team in 1984. After three years with the Buccaneers, he split the 1987 season between the 49ers and Raiders before spending his final NFL season with the Chargers.
He finished his NFL career with 10.5 sacks, four interceptions (including one returned 55 yards for the Chargers against the Seattle Seahawks in 1988) and five fumble recoveries, then played two seasons in the Canadian Football League and six in the Arena Football League.
Browner is survived by his son and four daughters.
The 69-year-old truck driver who got into a physical altercation with former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez over the weekend is out of the hospital and continuing his recovery at home, according to his attorneys.
Indiana resident Perry Tole suffered a laceration on his left cheek during an incident that occurred late Friday night and into early Saturday in an alley outside a downtown Indianapolis hotel.
“He’s been released from the hospital, recovering and hopeful that he’ll have regained function to — you know, his ability to speak,” Eric J. May, one of the attorneys representing Tole in a civil lawsuit against Sanchez, told TMZ on Monday.
“Right now he’s having a real difficult time communicating because of the large gash on his face. It affected his jaw, tongue and mouth.”
May added that Tole “can speak right now, but it’s just so slurred and so labored for him, just because of all the trauma to his mouth and cheek.”
Attorney Edward R. Reichert told TMZ that Tole won’t be able to attend his son’s wedding this weekend as a result of what he went through. May said he expects “further medical treatment and an ongoing treatment for him well into the future” and added that “psychological injuries” also are a concern.
“I think it’s too early to tell what his long term prognosis is going to be, but we’re hopeful,” May said. “He’s out right now, he’s back with his wife, and I think they’re just glad to be alive.”
Sanchez was pepper-sprayed in the face and stabbed multiple times by Tole during the scuffle, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed Saturday by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
As of Monday morning, Sanchez remained in the hospital and was listed in stable condition. His brother released a statement later in the day on behalf of the Sanchez family.
“This has been a deeply distressing time for everyone involved,” Nick Sanchez said. “Mark and our family are incredibly grateful for the concern, love, and support we’ve received over the past few days. Mark remains under medical care for the serious injuries he sustained and is focused on his recovery as the legal process continues.”
Sanchez is being charged with a level five felony of battery involving serious bodily injury and three misdemeanors — battery resulting in injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication.
Marion County, Ind., prosecutor Ryan Mears said Monday that more charges are possible as the investigation continues.
Sanchez was in Indianapolis to call Sunday’s Raiders-Colts game for Fox Sports. Fellow Fox analyst Brady Quinn filled in for Sanchez on the broadcast.
According to the affidavit, which was based on hotel surveillance footage and a statement Tole gave to the police, Sanchez apparently objected to Toles backing his box truck onto the hotel’s loading dock while performing his job with a company that recycles and disposes of commercial cooking oil.
Sanchez smelled of alcohol at the time of the confrontation, the affidavit said.
Tole’s civil lawsuit, filed Monday in Marion County Superior Court, alleges that he suffered “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function, other physical injuries, emotional distress, and other damages” as a result of Sanchez’s actions.
Sanchez’s employer, Fox Corp., is named as a co-defendent in the suit, in which Tole seeks compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Joshua Allen, the dancer who took home the crown on the fourth season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” has died after he was struck by a train in Fort Worth.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s database confirmed that Allen died early Tuesday morning at a local hospital. His manner of death and cause of death are pending, the database says. Allen was 36.
Police responded Tuesday around 1 a.m. to railroad tracks near the intersection of Millbrook Lane and Nuffield Lane, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Officers found Allen, who had been struck by a train, and took him to a nearby hospital where he died, police told the outlet. Police did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Wednesday.
Christina Price, who represented Allen, also confirmed his death, saying in a statement that “what stood out most about Joshua was his heart.”
“He had a natural gift for movement — no formal training, yet he could watch something once and his body just knew how to do it,” Price added.”Beyond his talent, he gave back, teaching kids in Texas through dance workshops.”
Allen’s family member confirmed the entertainer’s death to TMZ, which first broke the news. The family member did not disclose his cause of death and asked fans for “privacy and prayers.”
The Texas-based dancer auditioned for “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2008, impressing judges with his fluid movements, controlled popping and locking and springy leaps. Throughout the season, he proved his ability to take on a variety of dance styles ranging from contemporary to Bollywood. He remained a strong competitor, eventually besting fellow contestants for the grand prize.
Allen notably bested Stephen “Twitch” Boss, who died by suicide in December 2022. Boss was 40. Allen mourned Boss on Instagram, writing “NO WORDS will ever be enough to explain the LOVE I have for you Stephen.” At the time, he recalled connecting with Boss prior to their auditions and wrote, “This isn’t goodbye more so I’ll see you later.”
Price, who also represented Boss, said his death “weighed heavily on Allen” and that “it’s heartbreaking to now be grieving Joshua as well.”
After his “So You Think You Can Dance” days, Allen’s work included a McDonald’s commercial, a role in the debut season of “American Horror Story” and appearances in “Freak Dance,” “Step Up 3D,” and the 2011 “Footloose” remake, according to IMDb. He was also an instructor for several dance competitions.
Allen faced legal troubles in summer 2016, when he was accused of attacking his girlfriend at a coffee shop. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged him with two felony counts of willfully injuring his girlfriend, one felony assault with a deadly weapon and four misdemeanors related to battery, vandalism and violating a protective order, according to TMZ. Allen was poised to be a mentor on Season 13 of “SYTYCD,” but longtime host Cat Deeley announced his departure from the series on-air amid his domestic violence case.
He pleaded no contest in August 2016 and was sentenced to one year in jail.
Heartbreak doesn’t feel so good in a place like this. Longtime Hollywood power couple Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have gone their separate ways, according to several reports.
The Oscar-winning actor and the country music star separated and have been living “apart since the beginning of the summer,” TMZ reported Monday. People also confirmed the stars’ split, with a source saying that that Kidman “has been fighting to save the marriage.”
Representatives for Kidman, 58, and Urban, 57, did not respond immediately Monday to requests for comment.
Beloved AMC Theatres spokesperson Kidman and Grammy winner Urban tied the knot in June 2006 and share two teenage daughters who have been under the actor’s care “since Keith has been gone,” TMZ reported. The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” musician has been on the road for his High and Alive world tour, which launched in May. After the American leg of the tour concludes in Nashville in October, he will bring his music overseas beginning March 2026.
Kidman celebrated 19 years of marriage to Urban on social media in June, sharing a black-and-white photo of them backstage. “Happy Anniversary Baby,” she captioned the tender Instagram photo. Urban, who did not post an anniversary photo to the grid, has mainly used his Instagram to promote his musical endeavors in recent months. In May, he shared photos of him and Kidman celebrating his win at the American Country Music Awards.
The Australian stars married in an intimate ceremony in Sydney. Kidman was previously married to “Mission: Impossible” action star Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001. Kidman is Urban’s first wife.
It’s currently unclear whether the spouses will file for divorce.
French Montana is reportedly engaged to Mahra Maktoum — full name with title, Sheikha Mahra bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum — and the couple has apparently managed to keep the romance news off the radar for even longer than Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift did.
The couple got engaged in June during Paris Fashion Week, TMZ said Wednesday, citing a publicist for the rapper. They didn’t even go public as a couple until this summer in Paris. He’s 40 and walked the runway very slowly in the 3.Paradis spring/summer 2026 show; she’s 31 and the daughter of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai.
People reported that there’s little to report at this point, quoting a news release that stated, “Representatives confirm that while wedding plans are underway, specific dates and arrangements are still being finalized by both families, who are reportedly excited and supportive.”
Montana, who was born Karim Kharbouch and raised in Morocco until his family moved to the United States when he was a tween, previously dated reality TV royalty: He and Khloé Kardashian connected in 2014, dated for a bit, then split up and have remained friends over the years.
This will be a second marriage for both parties. Maktoum and her first husband, UAE businessman Sheikh Mana bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mana Al Maktoum, split in 2024 and have a young daughter together.
Montana and his first wife, entrepreneur Nadeen Palmer, a.k.a. Deen Kharbouch, had a son together in 2010 and separated in 2012 after five years as husband and wife; their divorce was finalized by a court in 2014.
Looks like whoever called the cops on Lil Nas X last week wasn’t exaggerating when they reported the Grammy winner as a “nude man walking in the street.”
Initial video posted last week by TMZ showed the performer wearing only tighty-whities and white cowboy boots, strolling and posing on an L.A. street just before sunrise — and just before his arrest on suspicion of charging at a police officer. But it turns out that’s not the exact condition he was in when law enforcement took him in.
In new video TMZ posted over the weekend, the “Old Town Road” singer can be seen walking down the middle of a street fully naked, having shed the boots and underpants that had barely covered his modesty. (That he disrobed explains how a concerned citizen-slash-amateur videographer was able to snatch his boots up from off the street and list them for sale on EBay, seeking $10,000 — or best offer.)
In the new footage, Lil Nas X recites some Nicki Minaj lyrics from the Kanye West tune “Monster” as he struts runway-style toward the person shooting the video, who appears to be in the driver’s seat of a car.
“And if I’m fake, I ain’t notice ‘cause my money ain’t / So let me get this straight, wait, I’m the rookie? / But my features and my shows 10 times your pay? / 50K for a verse, no album out,” Lil Nas X says in the video.
An LAPD spokesperson told The Times last week that the 26-year-old, who was arrested around 6 a.m. Thursday, initially was taken to a hospital for a possible overdose. Lil Nas X was booked a little over five hours later and ultimately spent the weekend in a Van Nuys jail pending a court date Monday to set bail.
Both the LAPD and Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene on Thursday. LAFD did not give The Times additional information about the singer’s condition.
The performer, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, was arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer after he allegedly charged at officers who responded to the call. Although TMZ reported that he was being held on a misdemeanor, online arrest records list him as being held on a felony count.
Representatives for Lil Nas X did not respond immediately to The Times’ request for comment Monday.
His arrest came soon after he apparently wiped his Instagram grid of old photos and posted a couple dozen new ones, including a selfie posted Tuesday of himself wearing a fur coat, bright red lipstick and both a cowboy hat and crown. “OH NO sHES GONE MAD! CRAZY I TELL U!,” he captioned the post.
In another photo, Lil Nas X posed in front of a backlit mirror in a gold gown, white cowboy boots and a tiara.
“And just like that she’s back,” he wrote in that caption. “We’ve all waited so long. When dreamworld needed her the most.”
Times staff writers Alexandra Del Rosario, Christopher Buchanan and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Grammy winner Lil Nas X’s stroll through Studio City early Thursday morning ended in his hospitalization and his arrest on suspicion of charging at a police officer.
The 26-year-old musician, known for hits including “Old Town Road” and “Industry Baby,” was transported to a local hospital for a possible overdose, an LAPD spokesperson confirmed to The Times on Thursday. Police did not confirm the singer’s identity but told The Times that at around 5:50 a.m., officers responded to the 11000 block of Ventura Boulevard to reports of a “nude man walking in the street.”
TMZ, which first reported on the singer’s hospitalization, shared video of the singer (real name Montero Lamar Hill) strutting in the street down a mostly empty Ventura Boulevard wearing only white underpants and cowboy boots. Police alleged that the “suspect charged at officers” upon their arrival, and he was taken into custody.
The Los Angeles Fire Department also reported to the 3700 block of North Cahuenga Boulevard where they picked up the musician, a spokesperson confirmed to The Times. The spokesperson did not share additional information about the singer’s condition.
Police booked the singer at the LAPD’s Valley Jail section in Van Nuys later Thursday morning on suspicion of misdemeanor battery on a police officer. A representative for Lil Nas X did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
In the clips shared with TMZ, the “Call Me By Your Name” artist speaks to a driver behind the camera about a party and repeatedly tells him to put away his phone. Lil Nas X also posed with an orange traffic cone over his head, as seen in photos published by TMZ.
Lil Nas X, who broke out in 2019 with the viral “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, was hospitalized earlier this year after he said in a since-expired Instagram story that he had “lost control” of the right side of his face. He reassured fans, “It’s getting better y’all, I promise.”
On Tuesday, the singer also seemingly wiped his Instagram page of old posts and shared 26 photos and videos. Several new posts seem to point to a new chapter in his music, including a brief snippet of his song “KIMBO” featuring Lil Jon. His recent photos take a more cryptic approach, with several featuring random items scattered in different parts of a room.
Lil Nas X also posted a selfie on Tuesday of himself wearing a fur coat, bright red lipstick, and both a cowboy hat and crown. “OH NO sHES GONE MAD! CRAZY I TELL U!,” he captioned the post.
In another photo, Lil Nas X poses in front of a backlit mirror as he wears a gold gown, white cowboy boots and a tiara.
He wrote in the caption: “And just like that she’s back. We’ve all waited so long. When dreamworld needed her the most.”
Times staff writers Christopher Buchanan and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Former UFC champion Randy Couture suffered severe burns and other injuries Tuesday when he crashed the car he was driving during practice rides at a racetrack near Kansas City, Mo.
The 62-year-old retired fighter and former Army drill sergeant was airlifted to a burn center and remained there as of Wednesday morning. He is expected to recover.
“If you know anything about Randy — he’s a freak of nature and will survive this like everything else,” Couture’s longtime manager and attorney Samuel Spira said in an email Wednesday afternoon.
No further updates on Couture’s condition will be issued until Thursday, Spira said.
TMZ was the first to report about Couture’s crash and his injuries, which include first- and second-degree burns, trauma injuries and smoke inhalation. The car he was driving was completely wrecked, TMZ reported, and it is unclear what caused the accident.
A state champion wrestler at Lynnwood High School in Washington state, Couture continued in the sport while in the Army in 1982-88 and at Oklahoma State, finishing second in the NCAA Division I championships in 1991 and 1992. He was an alternate for the U.S. Olympic team three times (1988, 1992 and 1996) and a semifinalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials.
Couture went on to become a mixed martial arts superstar, becoming a six-time UFC champion in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions and was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
More recently, Couture has become involved with hot rod racing. Scag Racing announced in April that Couture would drive for the team in the NHRA’s Pro Mod program starting later this year.
Be glad you’re not Jeff Bezos or Lauren Sánchez. Sure, being that rich would be awesome, but being rich comes with rich-people problems. With their Italian wedding imminent, they have a host of things to worry about that would never cross the imaginations of other, more average couples who don’t have 12 digits representing their net worth.
Most details of the Venice fête are being kept close to the vest. A couple of local companies have confirmed they are contributing handcrafted glassware and local pastries to the wedding-favor goodie bags. Some guests’ names leaked when the invites went out in March (we name-drop below, never fear).
But a few details that might be quite vexing to the bride and groom are playing out in public. Let’s take a look.
Your destination wedding’s destination might hate you
All of Venice may not truly be ticked off, but photos, activists and media coverage make it seem that way.
Venice teacher and activist Marta Sottoriva called the wedding “the symbol of all that is wrong with Venice.”
“There’s a lot of anger in the air because once again the council has enslaved itself to the logic of profit — our city has been sold to the highest bidder,” she told the Guardian. “Every time an event of this kind happens, the city comes to a standstill, certain areas become inaccessible and even more tourists arrive.” (Venice has been really annoyed lately by its number of tourists, kind of like the Louvre is really annoyed.)
“No Space for Bezos” activists speak at a public meeting of residents on June 13 in Venice, Italy.
(Andrea Merola / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But tourism councilor Simone Venturini was shocked that anyone might be upset that such a high-profile event was happening in the city.
“We should all be proud that the Bezos wedding, an event of international importance, is being held in the waters of our lagoon,” he told the Guardian. “Instead, the usual protest professionals have wasted no time. We want to reiterate that Venice is open to everyone.”
Venturini was more colorful in speaking to the Wall Street Journal, saying, “If Bezos’ wedding goes ahead as planned, without these pain-in-the-ass protests, Venetian citizens won’t even notice.”
The couple’s London-based wedding planners, Lanza & Baucina, told CNN in a statement, “Rumors of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality.” They and the client, the planners said, wanted to minimize any disruption to the city.
That said, it’s impossible to get a reservation this week at the Aman Venice, the nearly 500-year-old hotel on the Grand Canal where the happy couple are rumored to be staying, at least for part of their wedding week, along with a host of wedding guests. The place is fully booked through Sunday, per TMZ, at a reported $2,000 to $10,000 a night per room.
Protests could really screw things up
Forget throwing soup on the “Mona Lisa” — the Bezos wedding protesters might do something truly offensive: They are threatening to screw up traffic on the big day.
“Bezos will never get to the Misericordia [event space],” activist Federica Toninello told an appreciative crowd last week, according to CNN. “We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.”
Having just learned what the Misericordia is, we have no idea what role the location might play in the nuptials, but it looks like a nice enough spot for a reception. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a cultural center built in 1951, has also been floated as a wedding venue. But let’s get back to the blockades and such.
Another speaker at that same rally said she didn’t want Venice remembered as a beautiful wedding venue but “as the city that did not bend to oligarchs.”
“We can’t miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding,” Na Haby Stella Faye said — because, really, how often does that chance come around? Although her goal stated at the rally was “to stop this wedding,” in her Instagram stories Monday, she was promoting a planned Saturday protest of Bezos, President Trump and, well, war.
A massive banner targeting Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is laid out in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, ahead of his wedding to Lauren Sánchez.
(Greenpeace / Associated Press)
Less aggressive protests include a host of banners and “No Space for Bezos” posters that have been hung around the city. A colossal message from Greenpeace to Bezos was laid out Monday in the Piazza San Marco. The square banner, which read “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX,” was quickly folded up and carried away by local cops, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s absurd to treat this city like it’s Disneyland,” said Grazia Satta, a retired teacher and social worker, per the Wall Street Journal. “The message this wedding sends is that rich people can do whatever they want. We shouldn’t kneel before wealth like this.”
By Monday, Bezos’ security team was making last-minute changes to try to outsmart the activists, according to TMZ. Even the water-taxi companies are being “kept in the dark,” the site said, and if the water taxis don’t know what’s going on, who really does?
Perhaps Bezos could tap that $212-billion bank account and enlist a Prime Delivery person to drop off himself and his bride discreetly at their reception? Though the human-size Amazon box could be a dead giveaway.
Whose yacht is biggest — and where will they park?
Yes, we know yachts don’t “park,” they drop anchor. But no matter what you call it, the biggest yachts can’t drop anchor in all parts of Venice.
One wedding theory has held that Bezos and Sánchez will exchange their vows on his 417-foot yacht, the Koru, where he proposed to her two years ago after five years of dating. But reported plans to dock the yacht in a lagoon might have changed. Apparently the close-to-shore concept is starting to look like a safety hazard due to those threatened protests of the second-richest man in the world.
The Koru is far from the only big boat floating around town, mind you. Venice has nine “yacht ports,” all of which have been booked for the wedding week. Apparently, TMZ reported, noncelebrity billionaire yacht owners are altering their Venice vacation plans to avoid the crush. That has to sting.
Fortunately, although the yacht situation is fluid and the airspace over Venice is closed, CNN reported that private helicopters are being given a pass, in case a head of state decides to chopper in. As one does.
One type of watercraft not involved in the festivities? Gondolas, or at least those piloted by people the WSJ talked to. “We are too slow,” one gondolier lamented.
International events might affect the guest list
President Trump reportedly scored an invitation to the wedding. Unclear if a plus-one for Melania was included. However, the commander in chief is a wee bit busy handling world events these days — hard to tell if he will be able to get away, even for a gala event like this one. Aren’t destination weddings the worst? So inconvenient.
That said, Ivanka Trump and hubby Jared Kushner reportedly got invited too, along with Jared’s brother Joshua Kushner and model wife Karlie Kloss. So the first family might be represented after all. And who knows, POTUS could swing by. Does Marine One count as a “private” helicopter?
Others on the guest list, per TMZ, include Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Bill Gates, singer Jewel, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Corey Gamble, Barbra Streisand, Eva Longoria, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Brian Grazer, Barry Diller, Diane von Furstenberg, models Brooks Nader and Camila Morrone, and Queen Rania of Jordan. Perry won’t attend, though, because she’s on tour.
Cassie is celebrating a new personal milestone: her baby boy with husband Alex Fine has arrived.
The “Me & U” singer on Tuesday gave birth to her third child in a New York hospital, sources confirmed to TMZ and People. She and “MobLand” actor Fine welcomed their newest family member after the former was rushed to the hospital Tuesday and admitted into the labor and delivery unit, according to TMZ.
A representative for Cassie, 38, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for confirmation and additional information.
The singer (born Casandra Ventura) married Fine, 32, in October 2019 months after meeting him earlier that year at a gym where he worked as a wellness consultant. They also share daughters Frankie, 5, and Sunny, 3.
Cassie announced her pregnancy in February via Instagram, sharing photos from an intimate family photo shoot. She captioned the post — which prominently featured her baby bump and her loved ones surrounding her — with a few emojis, including a blue heart. Fine, also known for the series “American Primeval” and “1883,” said in his own Instagram post at the time that his growing family was the “best gift I could ask for.”
The “Long Way 2 Go” musician enters her newest chapter of motherhood less than two weeks after she testified against ex-boyfriend and disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in his federal sex trafficking trial in New York. During her four days of testimony, Cassie shared disturbing allegations about her relationship with the Bad Boy Records boss — including his alleged fits of violence, threats of blackmail and his notorious sexual marathons called “freak-offs.” She sued Combs in the fall of 2023, helping set the stage for additional lawsuits from other accusers, federal raids on Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami and more legal fallout.
“I hope my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear,” Cassie said in a statement shared by her attorney Douglas Wigdor. “For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember. And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”
Fine, in a statement through Wigdor, also shut down narratives that he saved his wife from Combs. “To say that is an insult to the years of painful work my wife has done to save herself,” he said. “Cassie saved Cassie.”
He added: “She alone broke free from abuse, coercion, violence and threats.”
Fine concluded, noting “this horrific chapter is forever put behind us” and asked for privacy ahead of the arrival of his son with Cassie.
Times staff write Richard Winton and former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.
