The Alabama woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her at age 13 has formally withdrawn the allegation, stating in court documents that there was “no truth” to her claim.
She initially filed a lawsuit in New York under the name Jane Doe in October 2024. In the complaint, she alleged that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, while another unnamed celebrity was present.
Her lawsuit was dismissed in February 2025 by her attorney, Tony Buzbee, who has represented several people who have accused Combs of sexual misconduct.
The following month, Jay-Z—whose legal name is Shawn Carter—filed a countersuit against Buzbee, his Texas law firm and Doe.
Doe has since hired Alabama attorney J Blair Newman and withdrawn her accusations against Carter in court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
In the filing, she said she had “never met or spoken to” Carter and emphasized that she was recanting the allegations voluntarily. She also stated that she had received no payment from Carter or anyone acting on his behalf.
The Daily Mail has contacted Carter’s representatives and Newman for comment.
The Alabama woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her at age 13 has formally withdrawn the allegation, saying there was “no truth” to her claim.
Carter has been married to Beyoncé since 2008, and the couple have three children: Blue Ivy, 14, and nine-year-old twins Sir and Rumi. The couple are pictured in 2024.
“Our client maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in identifying Mr Carter, and those allegations were false,” Newman said in a statement provided to TMZ.
“Mr Carter did not rape her, sexually assault her or engage in any inappropriate conduct toward her, and she has never met him. She sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Mr Carter and his family,” Newman added.
Carter and Beyoncé have been married since 2008 and have welcomed three children: Blue Ivy, 14, and nine-year-old twins Sir and Rumi.
Doe was represented in her case against Carter by several attorneys from the Buzbee Law Firm, including Buzbee and David Fortney.
In the court filing submitted this Thursday, Doe said she had told Fortney that she was experiencing “mental health conditions.” However, she alleged that he “never asked” whether those conditions affected her memory of the allegations.
The Daily Mail has contacted Fortney for comment.
“I understand my accusations have caused Mr Carter immense pain, suffering and damage that can never be fully undone,” Doe said in the new court documents.
According to her latest filing, Doe came across a Facebook advertisement in September or October 2024 seeking people who might have sexual assault claims against Combs.
The advertisement directed her to a form for a firm called the AVA Law Group. She told the firm that, when she was a model, she had attended an afterparty for the 2000 Teen Choice Awards—not the MTV Video Music Awards, as stated in her original lawsuit.
The accuser filed her lawsuit in New York under the name Jane Doe in October 2024, alleging that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs had assaulted her. Combs and Jay-Z are pictured in 2020.
Her contact with the AVA Law Group set off a series of events that ultimately led to her being represented by the Buzbee Law Firm, according to the new declaration.
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Doe maintained in her filing that she was never given a draft of her October 2024 complaint against Carter before it was submitted by the Buzbee Law Firm.
Further, she alleged she was unaware who Buzbee even was when he filed suit on her behalf, a development she professed to have only learned of weeks afterwards.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Buzbee Law Firm, as well as to Buzbee and Fortney, for comment on the claims in Doe’s legal filing.
By January 2025, she had begun harboring ‘doubts’ not only about her claims against Carter but about having ever attended ‘a party with celebrities’ at all, Doe asserted in her filing.
In response to the Daily Mail’s request for comment, Buzbee said: ‘We aren’t sure why Ms Doe would say such things. We have video where she was explained in detail her case and she approved every allegation. She also signed four different affidavits that were filed with the court stating that her allegations were true.
‘In addition she spoke to FIVE DIFFERENT lawyers from two different law firms confirming her story was true. So, with all respect, the current story she is giving now isn’t supported by the prior statements she had given. Why she has changed her story is an important question that we don’t have the answer to.’
When Doe’s lawsuit was dismissed in February 2025, Carter publicly celebrated his ‘victory’ over the ‘frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations’ against him.
‘I would not wish this experience on anyone,’ he added. ‘The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.’
Doe’s current attorney said in a statement that she ‘sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Mr Carter and his family’; Jay-Z and Beyonce are pictured at teh 2026 Met Gala
The Empire State of Mind hitmaker raged in his subsequent countersuit that the defendants ‘were soullessly motivated by greed, in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency.’
Buzbee responded to the countersuit in a Facebook statement, saying Carter’s ‘claims’ of ‘extortion’ were ‘stupidly frivolous and I expect they will be thrown out.’
In the wake of Doe’s recantation, Carter has reportedly withdrawn his complaint against her but is still said to be pursuing legal action against Buzbee, per TMZ.
This Friday, Buzbee submitted a filing – viewed by the Daily Mail – to the New York court adjudicating his legal dispute with Carter.
In a letter to the judge, Buzbee alleged that Carter obtained Doe’s recantation ‘in exchange for dismissing her’ from his countersuit.
He also accused Carter of relying on testimony from a witness whom he and his counsel ‘spent two years calling inherently unreliable’ themselves.
Meanwhile, Combs – a onetime colleague of Carter’s – was acquitted last July of the most serious charges against him, sex trafficking and racketeering, but was found guilty on two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
He was initially meant to remain in prison until May 8, 2028, but his release date has been repeatedly moved earlier and now stands at February 5, 2028.
Earlier this year, in an interview marking 30 years of stardom, Carter confessed he had been sluiced into a state of ‘uncontrollable anger’ by the rape allegation.
‘It was hard. Really hard. I was heartbroken,’ he revealed to GQ. ‘You don’t put that on someone – that’s a thing that you better be super sure….’