He questioned many aspects of Ventura\u2019s testimony, including the fact she stayed in contact with Diddy after and during his alleged abuse.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Charley Ross<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-675628856.jpg” alt=”Cassie and Diddy” title_text=”%22Rei Kawakubo\/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between%22 Costume Institute Gala – Arrivals” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] American comedian and writer Bill Maher has been hit with criticisms after a rather controversial take on the Me Too movement and Cassie Ventura\u2019s relationship with Diddy as she testifies against him at trial. Many have suggested that his take on the situation is victim blaming.<\/p>\n In a monologue on an episode of Real Time With Bill Maher he started off with outlining his position that Diddy is a \u2018bad dude\u2019, but things spiralled from there.<\/p>\n ‘We need to keep two thoughts in our head at the same time: One, Diddy is a bad dude – really bad. Like, the worst thing in rap since Hammer pants.’<\/p>\n Things got complicated when he suggested that if a victim is being abused, there should be a rule that \u2018you\u2019ve got to leave right away\u2019, not considering in any way the complexities and fear that can come with leaving an abuser.<\/p>\n ‘Things have changed enough that moving forward, the rule should be, if you’re being abused, you’ve got to leave right away,’ he said.<\/p>\n He suggested that if Diddy were to end up walking free, it could be due to the fact that Ventura\u2019s messages were \u2018expressing what\u2019s often called enthusiastic consent to their sex life.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] ‘If Diddy walks free, it will be because his lawyers can point to an endless stream of texts from Cassie expressing what’s often called ‘enthusiastic consent’ to their sex life,’ Maher said, trivialising the situation further by using \u2018Me Too\u2019 as a verb when suggesting Ventura\u2019s allegations hold less weight because he continued to be in contact with Diddy after and during his abuse.<\/p>\n ‘If you’re ‘MeToo-ing’ someone, it’s not helpful to your case if you text him, ‘me too!”<\/p>\n He continued to argue about the existence of a woman\u2019s assumed \u2018agency\u2019 to leave an abusive relationship.\u2018Your only contemporaneous notes about what he did should be the police report,\u2019 he said. \u2018It\u2019s not victim shaming to expect women to have the agency to leave toxic relationships. Quite the contrary, to not expect that is infantilising them.\u2019<\/p>\n Next, he suggested that a victim\u2019s reason to stay in an abusive relationship may be due to the \u2018allure\u2019 of being a star. \u2018I get it. Part of the allure of the music industry is you wanna be a star,\u2019 he said. \u2018And music is, to begin with, highly sexualised.<\/p>\n ‘I understand why it can be difficult for women to leave an abusive relationship, but this should be society’s new grand bargain,’ Maher said. ‘We take every allegation seriously, but don’t tell me anymore about your contemporaneous account that you said to two friends ten years ago.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] ‘Tell the police right away. Don’t wait a decade. Don’t journal about it. Don’t turn it into a one-woman show. And most importantly, don’t keep f***ing him. Your only contemporaneous notes about what he did should be a police report.’<\/p>\n Where do we begin with this? The fact that a woman isn\u2019t always physically or emotionally able to report their abuse? How insulting this situation being described as a \u2018one-women show\u2019 is? And the total ignorance of the complexity and danger that may come from witholding sex from an abuser? We could go on.<\/p>\n Maher seems to be under the impression that all institutions listen to women when they report such abuse.<\/p>\n ‘We’re not in the ‘no one listens to women or takes them seriously’ era anymore. Operators are actually standing by to take your calls,’ he said.<\/p>\n Maher proposed a ‘new rule,’ that ‘if you’re being abused, you’ve got to leave right way,’ applying this rule to Ventura and continued with his theories about women who face abuse wanting to get \u2018something out of it\u2019, such as fame.<\/p>\n ‘When women felt, for good reason, that ‘OG predators’ like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein would never be held accountable, why not at least get something out of it?’ he said.<\/p>\n ‘It was not illogical for an abused women to say, ‘Well, if I can’t get justice for my pain, can I at least get a receipt? A coupon?” he continued, suggesting that Ventura was in some way advancing her career from their relationship.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-899868426.jpg” alt=”Cassie and Diddy” title_text=”Varsity Friday’s Presents Mr. Jones” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||1px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”] He then went on to argue that having an ‘honest conversation about abuse’ must also include the realities of ‘what people are willing to do for stardom’.<\/p>\n ‘If you want a No.1 record so bad, you’ll take a No.1 in the face, some of that is on you,’ Maher said.<\/p>\n ‘And if you’re doing it for love, well, c’mon, Oprah and Dr. Phil and every podcaster in the world by now have done a million shows about ‘abuse is not love’ and ‘abusers don’t change.’\u2019<\/p>\n Maher wasn\u2019t done. He then went on to draw comparisons between the case and Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship, including suggesting if Turner was able to \u2018get away\u2019, then this ability should apply to all abused women. He said: ‘R&B singer Ike Turner was a psycho, just like Diddy. But in an era when there was no movement to help her, Tina Turner somehow got away and she did it with 36 cents in her pocket and a mobile card.’<\/p>\n While some have come to Maher\u2019s defence to speculate whether Ventura stayed with Diddy in their relationship \u2018for fame and fortune\u2019, others have hit back at Maher for his lack of understanding when it comes to the complexities of leaving an abuser.\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] One wrote: ‘@billmaher showing his true colors with his acceptance of the psychological warfare and terror of controlling abusive men in the industry and beyond, but especially if you have a lot of money to contribute to the @DNC.’<\/p>\n Another posted: ‘Obviously he has no clue how a victim can be mentally manipulated…’ while one wrote: ‘Cassie was groomed at a young age; then she was dragged into a culture she was drowning in with no sign of getting out by a complete monster who terrified everyone around him.’<\/p>\n Another commenter called Maher\u2019s words \u2018insanely ignorant\u2019. \u2018We have seen in the video that she tried to leave\u2026 yes women will be believed way faster than in the past, but still the abuse is not black and white,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n \u2018Floored by people who do not understand abusive relationships,\u2019 one critic wrote. \u2018You don’t know what was actually going on. To say she stayed for the money is probably the cruelest thing to say. Bill Maher is just a jerk\u2019.<\/p>\n Clearly we\u2019ve got a long way to go when it comes to a powerful man\u2019s understanding of abuse and violence against women and girls.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photos: <\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" His claims were outrageous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10567"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10631,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567\/revisions\/10631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘don’t turn it into a one-woman show’- bill maher<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
‘abuse is not black and white.’<\/span><\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]