Jay-Z’s accuser fully recants rape allegations in new filing

An anonymous woman who accused rap mogul Jay-Z of raping her at a 2000 afterparty has fully withdrawn her allegations, telling a Manhattan federal court in a new sworn declaration that she never met him.

The woman, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, first sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in October 2024 and amended her complaint two months later to add Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, alleging the two men raped her when she was 13 at a party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City. Both men denied the claims. Doe voluntarily dropped the suit in February 2025 without a settlement — a decision she has since said was driven by fear of retaliation.

But in a 12-page declaration filed Thursday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Doe reversed course entirely, writing under penalty of perjury: “Shawn ’Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter.” She added that she had disclosed unspecified mental health conditions to her legal team before the lawsuit was filed and that she was not paid for the new statement. Her attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said in a statement that she “sincerely and unconditionally” apologized to Mr. Carter and his family.

Mr. Carter simultaneously moved to drop Doe as a defendant in his separate malicious-prosecution lawsuit against her former attorney, Tony Buzbee, and Mr. Buzbee’s law firm — a case that remains active in New York. Reached by Rolling Stone, Mr. Buzbee said he had not yet reviewed the new declaration and noted that Doe “gave the exact same story” to multiple lawyers before he took her case.

Mr. Carter, in a GQ interview published in March, before the recantation, said: “It was hard. Really hard. I was heartbroken.”

A separate, related lawsuit Mr. Carter filed against Mr. Buzbee in California — alleging the original demand letter amounted to extortion — was dismissed and upheld on appeal earlier this month.