An anonymous woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally recanted her allegations in a court declaration, stating that she never met the rapper and that her claims were false . The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed the 12-page statement late Thursday, September 24, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, where Jay-Z—whose real name is Shawn Carter—is pursuing a malicious prosecution lawsuit against her former attorneys.
The Recantation
In her declaration, the woman 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 added that “there is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter” and that she understood her “false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone” .
The woman also stated that she had not received any money from Jay-Z or anyone acting on his behalf, and that she had never been threatened by him or his representatives . Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said in a statement: “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”.
How the Allegations Unraveled
The woman first made her claims in a 2024 lawsuit, alleging that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs had drugged and raped her at a party following the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000 when she was a minor . Both men denied the allegations, with Jay-Z describing them as a “blackmail attempt” and “frivolous, fictitious and appalling” .
In her declaration, the woman explained that she came forward after seeing a Facebook advertisement in late 2024 seeking people who might have sexual assault claims against Combs . She said the ad “triggered memories of being raped” when she was a teenager . She was subsequently connected with the Buzbee Law Firm, which filed a complaint on her behalf in October 2024—without her knowledge, she claimed, and “without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry or due diligence” .
The woman dropped the lawsuit in February 2025, after which Jay-Z filed a countersuit against her and attorney Tony Buzbee for malicious prosecution and defamation .
Buzbee’s Response and Ongoing Litigation
Tony Buzbee, who represented the woman and continues to represent numerous other plaintiffs suing Combs, told Rolling Stone that he had not seen the new declaration . “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,” Buzbee said. “If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information” .
Following the recantation, Jay-Z voluntarily dismissed the woman from his lawsuit, though he is continuing to pursue claims against Buzbee and his firm . In a previous declaration, Jay-Z stated that the lawsuit cost him roughly $20 million in lost income and damaged Roc Nation’s business relationships . When the case was originally dismissed in 2025, he said: “The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed” .
Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was also named in the original lawsuit, is currently serving a four-year federal prison sentence after being convicted on prostitution-related charges in July 2025 . He was acquitted on sex trafficking charges .