Jay-Z is at the center of a dramatic legal development after the woman who accused him of rape in a 2024 lawsuit formally recanted her allegations and said she had never met or spoken to him. In a sworn declaration filed in Manhattan federal court on September 24, the woman, known as Jane Doe, stated that Carter never raped her, never behaved inappropriately toward her and that there was no truth to her claims against him.
Jay-Z Accuser Says Her Allegations Were False
Jay-Z had been accused by the woman of sexually assaulting her in 2000, when she was 13 years old. Her original lawsuit alleged that she encountered Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs at an afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards and that the two men raped her.
The lawsuit was initially filed against Combs in October 2024 before being amended in December to identify Carter as the previously unnamed male celebrity. Both men denied the allegations. The woman ultimately dismissed the civil lawsuit in 2025, after which Jay-Z filed his own legal action against her and members of her former legal team.
In her new declaration, however, Jane Doe said she never met Carter and apologized for the consequences of the accusations. She also stated that she had not been paid or promised compensation for making the new declaration.
Jay-Z Legal Battle Continues Despite Accuser’s Recantation
Jay-Z has now voluntarily dismissed the woman as a defendant in his ongoing lawsuit, but the case against attorney Tony Buzbee and his Texas-based law firm continues. Carter had accused the legal team of pursuing false claims and attempting to pressure him into a financial settlement.
The woman’s new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., has provided an important qualification to her recantation. He said his client continues to maintain that she was sexually assaulted, but that she was “entirely mistaken” in identifying Carter as the person involved. This means the latest declaration specifically repudiates the allegations against Jay-Z without establishing what, if anything, happened in the underlying assault she now says she remembered.
According to the woman’s declaration, she initially responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking people who might have sexual-assault claims involving Combs. She said the advertisement triggered memories of an assault from her teenage years. She later began doubting her account, including whether she had actually attended a celebrity party as originally claimed.
The latest development therefore represents a major reversal in the specific allegations against Carter, while leaving other parts of the litigation unresolved. Jay-Z has denied the accusations from the beginning, and his legal battle with Buzbee and the law firm continues.
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