The woman who accused Jay-Z of sexual assault in late 2024 has now admitted she made the whole thing up. In a 12-page declaration filed in Manhattan federal court, the Jane Doe wrote plainly, “Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter.”
The statement goes further than a simple retraction. There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter,” she wrote, adding that she understands her false accusations caused him “immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.
Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., clarified that his client still maintains she was a victim of sexual assault, just not by Jay-Z.
She was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr. Carter, and those allegations were false,” Newman said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Jay-Z, who denied the claims from the moment they surfaced, has been fighting back through the courts since the original lawsuit was filed.
His legal team moved quickly to have the suit dismissed, and he has consistently pointed the finger at Texas personal injury attorney Tony Buzbee, accusing him of orchestrating a campaign to damage his reputation.
The legal picture is still complicated, though. A California appeals court ruled that Jay-Z cannot sue Buzbee for extortion or defamation in that state.
That was a setback, but in June 2026 a Texas state judge dismissed two separate lawsuits that Buzbee’s clients had brought against Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which counts as a real win for the mogul’s camp.
Jay-Z has also reportedly dismissed the Jane Doe as a defendant in his ongoing malicious-prosecution lawsuit, which still sits in New York federal court and names Buzbee and his Texas-based law firm. That case is very much alive, and it suggests Jay-Z is not done pushing for accountability over how this whole situation was handled.
The recantation lands almost two years after the original allegations sent shockwaves through the industry and put Jay-Z in an uncomfortable spotlight alongside Diddy, whose own legal troubles have grown far more serious in the time since.
The two cases were always legally separate, but the timing of the initial filing drew an obvious association that Jay-Z’s team spent months trying to untangle.
For Jay-Z, the declaration is a public vindication, but as the Jane Doe herself acknowledged, the damage to his name is not something that simply disappears with a court filing. His malicious-prosecution case against Buzbee suggests he wants more than just a cleared record.
