A woman who previously accused rapper Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, of sexual assault has withdrawn the allegations, stating in a new court declaration that she never met or spoke to the music mogul.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit in 2024 alleging that Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Carter and Combs both denied the allegations.
In February 2025, Doe voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit. She later filed a 12-page declaration in Manhattan federal court in which she fully recanted her allegations against Carter.
“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 stated in the declaration obtained by Rolling Stone.
“There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter,” she added, acknowledging that the allegations had caused Carter significant personal and reputational harm.
Doe’s new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said his client maintains that she was sexually assaulted but was mistaken in identifying Carter as the person responsible.
“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,” Newman said. “Mr. Carter did not rape her, sexually assault her, engage in any inappropriate conduct toward her, and she has never met him.”
The lawyer added that Doe wanted to sincerely apologise to Carter and his family, including his wife, Beyoncé.
The latest declaration was filed alongside a notice that Carter was voluntarily dismissing Doe as a defendant in his ongoing malicious-prosecution lawsuit against her former lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
The case began in late 2024 when Doe initially filed a lawsuit against Combs, with Carter later being identified as the previously unnamed celebrity defendant. She subsequently withdrew the entire complaint against both men after acknowledging inconsistencies in her account.
Buzbee, who said he had not yet reviewed Doe’s latest declaration, maintained that she had previously given the same account to multiple lawyers involved in the case.
Carter has consistently denied the allegations. In a March 2026 interview with GQ, he described the lawsuit as deeply upsetting and said he had experienced intense anger over the accusations.
The latest development comes as Carter’s separate malicious-prosecution case against Buzbee remains pending in federal court in New York.
