A woman who accused American rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter of raping her when she was 13 has formally withdrawn the allegation, declaring that her claims against the music star were false.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, had filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs at a party following the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000.
Both musicians denied the allegation, while the woman later dropped the lawsuit in February 2025.
Carter subsequently filed a lawsuit against the woman and her former lawyers, including attorney Tony Buzbee.
In a declaration filed in that case on Thursday, the woman stated that Jay-Z had never raped her and that she had never met or spoken to him.
“Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever,” she said.
She further stated: “My claims that Mr Carter and Mr Combs raped me while a third celebrity, [name redacted] watched are false. There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr Carter.
“I understand my false accusations have caused Mr Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.”
Jay-Z had vehemently denied the allegations, describing them at the time as a “blackmail attempt” and calling the claims “frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations”.
After the woman withdrew her lawsuit in February 2025, the rapper, who is married to singer Beyoncé, said the impact of the allegations had extended to his family.
“The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed,” Carter said.
The woman, who is from Alabama, has now been removed from Carter’s lawsuit.
She also stated in her latest declaration that she had not received money from Jay-Z or anyone acting on his behalf and had not been paid to make the statement.
However, Carter’s legal action against the woman’s former lawyers, led by Buzbee, remains ongoing.
Buzbee told Rolling Stone, which first reported the woman’s latest declaration, that he had not seen the document.
“We have multiple lawyers (at least four) who dealt with Ms Doe long before she met me. She gave the exact same story to each. If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information,” he said.
When Carter filed the lawsuit against the woman and her lawyers in February 2025, Buzbee had alleged that Carter’s investigators repeatedly harassed and threatened the woman in an attempt to make her withdraw her claims.
In her latest declaration, however, the woman said: “I never received any threat from Mr Carter or anyone acting on his behalf.”
According to the woman, she saw an advert on Facebook in September or October 2024 seeking people who might have sexual assault claims against Combs.
She said the advert “triggered memories of being raped when I was 13 years old”.
She was subsequently contacted by a law firm but claimed she was not shown a draft of the lawsuit containing the allegations and did not authorise it before it was filed in October 2024.
She also alleged that Buzbee and other lawyers representing her filed the case “without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations”.
“The October Complaint alleges that Mr Carter and Mr Combs raped me when I was a minor while an unnamed celebrity watched. As discussed above, these allegations were false,” she said.
Buzbee represents several other people who have made allegations against Combs.
Combs had also denied the allegations made by Jane Doe, with his lawyer describing the case at the time as one of several civil lawsuits being “pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit”.
Combs was convicted by a US criminal court in July 2025 on prostitution-related charges involving two of his former girlfriends and is currently serving a four-year prison sentence.
Credit: TMZ
