A woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has now formally withdrawn the allegation, saying she never met or spoke to the rapper and that her claims against him were false.
The unnamed complainant, known in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging she was drugged and assaulted by Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs at a post-MTV Video Music Awards party when she was 13 years old. After both artists vehemently denied the claims and the plaintiff voluntarily dropped the lawsuit in early 2025, Carter filed a countersuit against the woman and her legal team for defamation and malicious prosecution.
In a sworn statement filed this week, the woman unequivocally retracted her claims. “Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter,” she wrote. “My claims that Mr. Carter and Mr. Combs raped me while a third celebrity watched are false. There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter.” She further expressed remorse, acknowledging that her “false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.”
The woman, a resident of Alabama, stated she was initially prompted to come forward after seeing a Facebook advertisement in late 2024 seeking individuals with sexual assault claims against Combs, which she said “triggered memories.” However, she now alleges that her legal representation, including prominent attorney Tony Buzbee, filed the October 2024 complaint “without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations.”
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She also explicitly denied previous claims by her former legal team that she had been harassed or threatened by Carter’s investigators into recanting. In her new declaration, she stated she received no such threats and was not financially compensated by Carter or his representatives to issue the retraction.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Buzbee indicated he had not yet seen the new declaration but pushed back on the implication of impropriety. “We have multiple lawyers who dealt with Ms. Doe long before she met me. She gave the exact same story to each,” he said, suggesting that if she is now claiming she lied to the court, it represents “new information.”
Carter had previously condemned the original lawsuit as a “blackmail attempt” and “frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations,” emphasizing the profound and unjust trauma inflicted upon his wife, Beyoncé, their children, and their extended family. Meanwhile, Sean Combs, who also denied Jane Doe’s claims at the time, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence following a July 2025 criminal conviction on prostitution-related charges.
As Carter’s lawsuit against the woman’s former legal team continues to advance, this striking reversal serves as a stark reminder of the complexities surrounding historical abuse allegations. It highlights the critical necessity of rigorous legal due diligence and the devastating personal toll that unfounded claims can exact on the accused, even as the broader justice system continues to grapple with legitimate accounts of misconduct in the entertainment industry.
Promise Idoko is Junior Reporter working with moderncrux He covers global politics and international affairs. Based in Nigeria,
