Jay-Z Diddy rape allegations recanted in 2025 lawsuit

A woman has formally withdrawn her civil lawsuit and declared under oath that her allegations against Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter were false, apologizing for the pain caused. She dropped her lawsuit against Jay-Z and Sean 'Diddy' Combs in 2025. In a 12-page declaration filed in Manhattan federal court, she stated Jay-Z never raped her, she never met or spoke to him, and he engaged in no inappropriate conduct. Her current lawyer, James Blair Newman Jr, said the allegations were false and that she sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Jay-Z and his family.

She stated she had not been promised or given money for making the declaration. The woman had been named as a defendant in Jay-Z’s malicious-prosecution lawsuit, but he has now voluntarily dismissed his claims against her. She said, '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 her false accusations caused immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.

Origins of the allegations

The claims originated in 2024 after the woman responded to a Facebook advert seeking victims of Combs, which she says triggered memories of an alleged assault in 2000. She accused Jay-Z and Combs of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 following the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2000. She filed her original lawsuit in October 2024, initially naming only Combs and an unnamed male celebrity, amending it two months later to name Jay-Z.

She said the advert triggered memories of being raped at age 13 and that she subsequently contacted a law firm. She alleged her original lawsuit was filed without her knowledge and that her lawyers did not carry out an independent investigation. She said she does not recall giving permission for the 2024 complaint. She later withdrew it after having doubts about her claims. Soon after the accusation became public, she told reporters she had 'made some mistakes' and noted more than two decades had passed.

Jay-Z’s response and legal counteraction

Jay-Z denied the allegations from the outset, calling them a blackmail attempt and a fictional tale. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, called it a frivolous case. Jay-Z filed a counter suit after the lawsuit was dropped and is still pursuing the woman’s former lawyers, claiming they should have known the allegations were contradicted by publicly available information and unsupported by any credible investigation.

Jay-Z said the trauma his family endured could never be dismissed. He told GQ in March that he hadn’t been that angry in a long time, calling it uncontrollable anger. He said the accusation took a lot out of him and that he was heartbroken. He refused to settle out of court, stating, 'I can’t take a settlement, it ain’t in my DNA … I would die.' His greatest concern was the effect on his wife Beyoncé and their children. When the allegations first emerged, Jay-Z described the alleged crime as heinous and said he implored the woman to pursue a criminal case rather than a civil claim.

The role of Tony Buzbee and Diddy’s separate legal fate

Tony Buzbee, the woman’s former attorney, defended the initial lawsuit but now faces Jay-Z’s malicious prosecution suit. Buzbee and his co-counsel described Jay-Z's lawsuit as a malicious prosecution when moving to dismiss it, arguing that inconsistencies in a decades-old memory of a drugging do not mean her lawyers acted improperly. Tony Buzbee said, 'If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information.' He disputed her new version, stating multiple lawyers had heard her give the same account before.

James Blair Newman Jr, her current lawyer, said, 'Our client maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr Carter.' Meanwhile, Sean Combs denied the woman’s allegations. He was separately convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution in an unrelated federal trial, receiving a four year and two month sentence in October 2025. He was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. Jay-Z is pursuing ongoing legal action against attorney Tony Buzbee and his Texas law firm over their handling of the original case.