A woman who previously accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has now stated that the allegation was false. The lawsuit, which she filed in 2024 against Jay-Z and Sean Combs after an MTV event in 2000, was dropped last year, and recently she reaffirmed her recantation through court filings. She declared that she had never met or been victimized by Jay-Z and expressed remorse for the pain caused to him and his family. Meanwhile, Tony Buzbee, one of her former lawyers, disputes these claims, suggesting a lack of due diligence in handling her case.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-25,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
A woman who had accused Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) of raping her when she was 13 years old recanted her allegation in October or September 2024. The unnamed accuser, known as Jane Doe in court documents, originally filed a lawsuit claiming that Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs drugged and raped her at a party after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. She later saw an advert on Facebook seeking people with sexual assault claims against Combs, which prompted her to file the lawsuit.
In her statement filed in Manhattan federal court in February 2025, she declared that her accusations were false and that she had never met Jay-Z or experienced any inappropriate conduct from him. She acknowledged causing "immense pain, suffering, and damage" to Jay-Z but claimed that her lawyers at the time did not conduct due diligence before filing the lawsuit.
Jay-Z denied the allegations immediately and sued Jane Doe and her former attorneys for malicious prosecution in February 2025. The woman's recantation was made as part of this ongoing legal battle, leading Jay-Z to drop her from his lawsuit.
Written for “Jay-Z Accusations Recanted” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 9 other(s) covering the same event.
- Published
A woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally said her allegation was untrue.
The unnamed woman filed a lawsuit in 2024 claiming she had been drugged and raped by Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, and Sean "Diddy" Combs at a party after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000.
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she → publish → 2000
The stars denied the allegation and she dropped the lawsuit last year.
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she → deny → lawsuit
Carter then sued her and her lawyers.
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Carter → sue → her
In a statement filed in that case on Thursday, she wrote: "Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter never raped me.
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Carter → file → me
I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter.
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I → meet → Carter
Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever."
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Carter → engage → me
The woman, known in court documents by the pseudonym Jane Doe, also said: "My claims that Mr Carter and Mr Combs raped me while a third celebrity, [name redacted] watched are false.
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name → know → me
"I understand my false accusations have caused Mr Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone."
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that → understand → pain
Carter had vehemently denied the accusations, saying they were a "blackmail attempt" and describing them as "frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations".
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they → deny → allegations
When the accuser dropped her case in February 2025, the rapper, who is married to singer Beyoncé, said: "The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed."
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wife → drop → that
The woman, from Alabama, has now been removed from Carter's lawsuit.
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woman → remove → lawsuit
She said she had not received any money from the rap superstar or anyone acting on his behalf, and had not been paid to make her latest declaration.
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she → say → declaration
The rapper is still suing the woman's former lawyers, led by Tony Buzbee.
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rapper → sue → Buzbee
In a statement to Rolling Stone, external, which first reported Jane Doe's new declaration, Buzbee said he had not seen it.
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he → report → it
He said: "We have multiple lawyers (at least four) who dealt with Ms Doe long before she met me.
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she → say → me
She gave the exact same story to each.
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She → give → each
If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that's new information.
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that → claim → us
When Carter filed his lawsuit against the woman and her lawyers in February 2025, Buzbee claimed at the time that Carter's investigators had "repeatedly harassed, threatened and harangued this poor woman for weeks, trying to intimidate her and make her recant her story".
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her → file → story
In her new declaration, the woman said: "I never received any threat from Mr Carter or anyone acting on his behalf."
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I → say → behalf
'No due diligence'
Setting out the events that led to her allegation, the woman said she saw an advert on Facebook in September or October 2024 looking for people who might have sexual assault claims against Combs.
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who → set → Combs
"The ad triggered memories of being raped when I was 13 years old," she said.
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she → trigger → memories
She was contacted by a law firm but was not provided with a draft of the lawsuit containing her allegations and did not authorise it before it was filed in October 2024, she said.
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she → contact → October
She also said Buzbee and other lawyers acting on her behalf filed it "without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations".
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Buzbee → say → allegations
She said: "The October Complaint alleges that Mr Carter and Mr Combs raped me when I was a minor while an unnamed celebrity watched.
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celebrity → say → me
As discussed above, these allegations were false."
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allegations → discuss → ?
Buzbee also represents numerous other people who have made allegations against Combs.
Combs denied Jane Doe's claims, which his lawyer described at the time as one of a number of civil cases "pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit".
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lawyer → represent → merit
In July 2025, Combs was convicted by a criminal court on prostitution-related charges involving his two ex-girlfriends, and is currently serving a four-year prison sentence.
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Combs → convict → sentence
The BBC has contacted Mr Combs for comment.
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BBC → contact → comment
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