The anonymous woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally withdrawn the allegation, declaring under penalty of perjury that she never met the rapper and that none of her claims against him were true.
The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, made the admission in a 12-page declaration filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, subsequently removed Doe as a defendant from his malicious-prosecution lawsuit. His case against Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee and the Buzbee Law Firm remains active.
‘I have never met Mr Carter’
In her declaration, Doe stated unequivocally that Carter never raped or sexually assaulted her.
“There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr Carter,” she wrote, adding that her false accusations had caused the musician and his family immense and irreversible harm.
Doe said she had never met or spoken to Carter and denied receiving or being promised compensation for making the declaration.
Her new lawyer, James Blair Newman Jr, said Doe continued to maintain that she had been sexually assaulted but acknowledged she was “entirely mistaken” when she identified Carter.
“She sincerely and unconditionally apologises to Mr Carter and his family,” Newman said.
Doe had previously alleged that Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards when she was 13.
The original lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in February 2025, preventing it from being filed again. Both Carter and Combs had consistently denied the allegations.
Claim followed online advertisement
Doe said her involvement began after she responded to a Facebook advertisement in late 2024 seeking people with sexual-assault allegations against Combs.
According to her declaration, the advertisement triggered memories of an assault she believed had happened when she was 13.
She claimed her lawyers filed the original October 2024 lawsuit against Combs without her knowledge and without conducting an independent investigation or background inquiry.
Carter was added as a defendant in December 2024 after Buzbee allegedly sent him a settlement demand. Carter refused to pay and publicly described the approach as an attempt to blackmail him.
Doe said she began questioning her account in January 2025, including whether she had ever attended a party involving celebrities.
She also alleged that her lawyers gave her US$1,200 when she travelled to Houston for an NBC News interview and arranged for her to take a polygraph test after inconsistencies emerged in her account. She said she was never given the result.
Buzbee told Rolling Stone that the money was “petty cash” intended to cover her travel and meals. He said several lawyers had heard the same account from Doe before she met him and that any admission that she lied to them and the court represented new information. au.rollingstone.com
Lawsuit against Buzbee continues
Carter sued Doe, Buzbee and his law firm, alleging they conspired to pressure him into making a confidential financial settlement by threatening serious damage to his reputation.
His lawsuit argues that Doe’s original account was internally inconsistent, contradicted by publicly available information and insufficiently investigated before Carter was publicly identified.
Buzbee and his lawyers deny wrongdoing and have asked the court to dismiss Carter’s claims, describing the action as improper and abusive.
Earlier this month, a California appeals court upheld the dismissal of a separate action brought by Carter against Buzbee. The court found no evidence that Buzbee advanced the accusation knowing it was false or with reckless disregard for its truth at the time. au.rollingstone.com
Carter’s New York malicious-prosecution case against Buzbee and his law firm remains unresolved.
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