A woman who accused rapper Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally recanted in a federal court filing, stating her accusations against him were false and that she has never met him.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a declaration in Manhattan federal court on September 24, 2025.
In the document, she wrote:”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 continued:
“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.”
The declaration was first reported by Rolling Stone and filed as part of Jay-Z’s own lawsuit against the woman and her former attorneys.
Background of the case
The original civil lawsuit was filed in 2024 against Sean “Diddy” Combs. The plaintiff alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a house party after the MTV Video Music Awards in New York in September 2000, when she was 13 years old.
She claimed a female celebrity was present and watched.
In December 2024, an amended complaint was filed naming Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, as the previously unidentified celebrity.
Both Combs and Carter denied the allegations.
Jay-Z immediately and vehemently denied the claims, calling it a “blackmail attempt” and describing the lawsuit as a “frivolous, fictitious and appalling” and “fictional tale.”
He accused her lawyer at the time, Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, of attempting extortion.
In an interview with NBC News shortly after Jay-Z was added to the suit in December 2024, the woman acknowledged “inconsistencies” and that she had made “some mistakes” in her recollection. She said she was living in Rochester, New York at age 13 and that a friend drove her over five hours to Manhattan for the VMAs.
That friend, according to her attorneys, had since died.The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff in February 2025. At the time, Jay-Z posted a statement on Roc Nation’s X account calling it a victory.
“Today is a victory. The frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed. This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims. I would not wish this experience on anyone,” he wrote.
“The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
His wife is singer Beyoncé.Following the dismissal, Jay-Z filed a counter-lawsuit for malicious prosecution and defamation against the woman, Buzbee, and his law firm.
New declaration says it was a mistake .
In the new September 2025 declaration, the woman provided a new version of events. She said she saw a Facebook advertisement in late 2024 seeking people with sexual assault claims against Combs, who is facing numerous lawsuits and is currently in federal prison on prostitution-related charges.
“The ad triggered memories of being raped when I was 13 years old,” she stated. She said she then contacted a law firm and that the lawsuit was filed without proper vetting.She claimed she does not recall giving permission for lawyers to file the 2024 complaint and that it was filed “without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations.””In January 2025, I began to doubt my claims against Mr. Carter.
I also began doubting that I ever went to a party with celebrities,” she wrote.She said she voluntarily decided to recant and had “received no monetary consideration, payment or financial compensation of any kind from Mr. Carter, or anyone acting on his behalf.” The filing also noted she had not been threatened by Carter.Her new lawyer, James Blair Newman Jr., told TMZ and CNN: “Our client maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr. Carter, and those allegations were false. Mr. Carter did not rape her, sexually assault her, engage in any inappropriate conduct towards her, and she has never met him. She sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Mr. Carter and his family.”The declaration was filed alongside a notice that Jay-Z is voluntarily dismissing the woman herself as a defendant from his counter-suit, while he continues to sue her former lawyers. The partially redacted document also references mental health struggles.
Buzbee responded to Rolling Stone: “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.”
