Ryan Leslie - Personal Life

Personal Life

Producer Ryan Leslie began spotting Cassie Ventura at clubs and parties in late 2004. He was charmed by Cassie’s personality and was finally introduced to her by AJ Crimson, Sean "Diddy" Combs' makeup artist, who had worked with Cassie on one of her photo modeling shoots.

Not long afterward, Cassie approached Ryan Leslie to help her record a song that she wanted to give to her mother as a birthday gift. Leslie put together a duet for the two of them to sing, called "Kiss Me". He was so pleased with the result that he played it for record executive Tommy Mottola who quickly offered Cassie a management deal. Leslie soon signed Cassie to his NextSelection label, and wrote and produced Cassie's first single, "Me & U" in 2005.

Leslie was named one of "New York's 50 Hottest Bachelors" in 2009 by PageSix Magazine, published by the New York Post.

In October 2010, Leslie's laptop was stolen from his Mercedes, while he was on tour in Cologne, Germany. Leslie would offer $20,000, rising it to $1 million reward for the return of it due to his recent productions that it contained. The laptop was returned however the intellectual property that Leslie was trying to recover was not present, and Leslie did not feel the reward terms had been met. Armin Augstein, who runs a garage in Pulheim, near Cologne, who returned the laptop was granted the $1 million reward in 2012 after a lawsuit. He was later also made pay an extra 180 thousand in interest for refusing to pay for those two years. Leslie is still in search for the material that was missing.