The anonymous Alabama woman who accused rapper Jay-Z of raping her at age 13 has formally recanted her claims in a sworn court declaration filed Thursday, September 24, 2026, in federal court in Manhattan, stating she never met or spoke to him and that her allegations were false.
The declaration, obtained by Rolling Stone and confirmed by The New York Times, The Houston Chronicle, Reuters and other outlets, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York as part of Jay-Z’s ongoing malicious prosecution lawsuit against Houston attorney Tony Buzbee and his Texas-based law firm, according to the Houston Chronicle’s report on the filing. The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, said she was entirely mistaken in identifying the rapper, born Shawn Corey Carter, as one of her attackers.
“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 wrote under penalty of perjury.
“There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter. I understand my false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.”
She added that she had not received any money or compensation from Carter or anyone acting on his behalf for making the statement.
Her current attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said she maintains she was a victim of sexual assault but was entirely mistaken in identifying Carter.
“Mr. Carter did not rape her, sexually assault her, engage in any inappropriate conduct towards her, and she has never met him. She sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Mr. Carter and his family,”
Newman said, per Rolling Stone and the NYT.
Jay-Z’s lawyers responded by filing a notice voluntarily dismissing Jane Doe as a defendant in the malicious prosecution case. The suit continues against Buzbee, whose firm is based in Houston, and his Texas-based law firm. Representatives for Carter had no immediate comment. The recantation and the malicious prosecution case sit inside a longer Jay-Z and Beyoncé legal story that Hypefresh has tracked separately, including a 2024 update in which the Carters’ names were removed from explosive “Freak Off” allegations in the Sean Combs civil docket.
Jane Doe first filed a civil lawsuit in October 2024 against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging he raped her at age 13. The complaint was later amended in December 2024 to name Carter as a co-defendant. In her original 2024 account, she said the assault occurred at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, that she was given a drink that made her feel woozy, that she wandered into a bedroom, and that she was raped by Carter followed by Combs while a third celebrity watched. Both men denied the allegations from the outset.
Carter, now 56, called the claims “heinous in nature” and a “blackmail attempt” in his December 2024 response. He accused Buzbee of sending an “extortionate demand letter” in late 2024 seeking a secret financial settlement. After Carter refused, the lawsuit was amended to include him. Jane Doe voluntarily dismissed her entire complaint against both men with prejudice in February 2025 after acknowledging inconsistencies in her story. Carter then sued her and Buzbee in federal court in New York, alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process.
In the new declaration, Jane Doe described how the case began. In late September or early October 2024, she responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking people with possible sexual assault claims against Combs. The ad “triggered memories of being raped when I was 13 years old,” she wrote. She filled out a form and was contacted by a law firm that later referred the matter to Buzbee’s office. She said the initial October 2024 lawsuit against Combs was filed without her knowledge and without independent investigation, background checks, or corroboration. She also disclosed certain mental health conditions to her attorneys but said they never asked whether those conditions affected her memory.
Jane Doe further stated that by January 2025 she began doubting both her claims against Carter and whether she had ever attended any celebrity party. After she expressed those doubts, her lawyers informed her they were dismissing the suit. She claimed lawyers paid for travel, meals, a hotel, and an outfit for a television interview and that Buzbee gave her cash during a brief meeting. Buzbee has disputed key parts of her account. Buzbee is a Houston-based personal injury attorney whose prior celebrity-litigation work has been a separate subject of Hypefresh’s reporting on Buzbee-led celebrity cases.
Reached for comment, Buzbee said he had not yet seen the 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. If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information,”
he wrote. He added that the case was referred by another firm with intake information already gathered and that his office hired a former major crimes detective to vet the facts. Buzbee has maintained that sending a demand letter in anticipation of litigation is standard practice and not extortion.
The original claims against Combs were unrelated to the separate federal case that led to his October 2025 sentencing to 50 months in prison on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, per Wikipedia’s coverage of the Combs trial. Jane Doe also stated in the declaration that Combs did not rape her. The Combs case drew its own prolonged coverage arc on Hypefresh, including trial-day updates as closing arguments approached and Jay-Z’s separate attorney drama around representation in the Combs docket.
Carter’s earlier California state-court extortion suit against Buzbee was dismissed, a ruling upheld on appeal. His remaining legal action is the New York malicious prosecution case against Buzbee and the firm. Carter has said the trauma endured by him, his wife Beyoncé, their children, and loved ones “can never be dismissed.” The 2000 MTV VMAs after-party where Jane Doe originally claimed the assault occurred was held September 7, 2000, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, per the event’s Wikipedia entry. Carter, born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, has been married to Beyoncé since April 4, 2008, and the couple share three children.
