A woman who accused American rapper Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally withdrawn her allegations, stating that her claims were false. The woman, known as Jane Doe, made the declaration in a legal case brought by Jay-Z after she previously sued him and Sean "Diddy" Combs over an alleged 2000 assault.
In her latest statement, Jane Doe said she had never met or spoken to Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and denied that he had behaved inappropriately towards her. She acknowledged that her earlier claims against Carter and Combs were untrue, adding that she had never met or spoken to Carter and that he never engaged in any inappropriate conduct towards her.
The woman had filed the lawsuit in 2024, alleging that she was drugged and raped by Carter and Combs at a party following the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. Both men denied the allegations. The woman later withdrew the lawsuit in February 2025, after which Carter filed a separate case against her and the lawyers who represented her.
According to Jane Doe's declaration, her allegation emerged after she saw a Facebook advertisement in September or October 2024 seeking people who might have sexual assault claims against Combs. A law firm subsequently contacted her but did not show her a draft of the complaint before it was filed in October 2024.
Jane Doe stated that she did not authorise the complaint before it was submitted and said the lawyers representing her had filed it "without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations". She directly addressed the allegations contained in the original lawsuit, saying they were false.
Jay-Z had previously described the allegations as a "blackmail attempt" and called them "frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations". After the woman abandoned her original case in February 2025, Jay-Z stated that the trauma his family and he endured can never be dismissed. His legal action against the woman's former lawyers remains ongoing.
The woman's former lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said he had not seen the latest statement and that his client had given the same story to multiple lawyers. Buzbee previously alleged that Jay-Z's investigators had harassed and threatened the woman into changing her account, which she has now rejected, stating she never received any threat from Jay-Z or anyone acting on his behalf.
Key points
- The woman accusing Jay-Z of rape has formally withdrawn her allegations.
- The woman stated that her allegations were false and that she had never met Jay-Z.
- Jay-Z's legal action against the woman's former lawyers remains ongoing.
