A woman who accused rapper Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has withdrawn the allegation, saying she never met or spoke to him.
The woman filed a lawsuit in 2024, accusing Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her after an MTV awards ceremony in 2000.
Jay-Z denied the allegation and described it as an attempt at blackmail. Combs also denied the claim. The woman dropped the lawsuit in 2025, while Jay-Z later filed a countersuit.
In a declaration obtained by Rolling Stone, the woman said her allegations against Jay-Z were false.
“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 added: “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 woman has since been removed from Jay-Z’s lawsuit, but the rapper is continuing his legal action against her former lawyers. He alleges they should have known the claims were contradicted by public information and lacked credible support.
Her former lawyer, Tony Buzbee, told Rolling Stone: “If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information.”
However, her current lawyer, James Blair Newman Jr, said the woman still maintains that she was sexually assaulted but was mistaken in identifying Jay-Z as her attacker.
The woman said memories of a sexual assault were triggered after she saw an advertisement seeking people who had been victims of Combs.
She also said she was unaware that a lawsuit had been filed on her behalf and later raised doubts about her allegations before the case was dropped.
Jay-Z has previously spoken about the impact of the allegations on his family. When the case was dropped, he said: “The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
He later told GQ that the allegations caused him intense anger and said he refused to settle the case.
“I can’t take a settlement – it ain’t in my DNA … I would die,” he said.
