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The woman known in court papers as Jane Doe submitted a 12-page declaration Thursday in which she stated that Shawn Carter, the rapper and entrepreneur known as Jay-Z, never raped her or engaged in any inappropriate conduct, according to filings reviewed by NME and the BBC. “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 in the document. “There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter,” the declaration continued, with the woman adding that the false accusations had caused Carter “immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.” The filing also noted that she had not been promised or received any compensation for the statement, a report by NME on September 25, 2026 detailed.
Doe’s original civil lawsuit was filed in October 2024 against Sean “Diddy” Combs, with an amended complaint in December 2024 adding Jay-Z as a co-defendant and alleging the pair raped her at an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards in New York, The New York Times reported in February 2025. The accuser claimed she was 13 at the time of the alleged incident in 2000 and that she was picked up afterward by her father, though subsequent reporting by NBC News highlighted inconsistencies including her father’s lack of recollection of the drive and other timeline issues, according to an Associated Press article from December 2024. Jay-Z’s attorney Alex Spiro had called the claims “provably, demonstrably false” during a December 2024 news conference at Roc Nation’s offices, citing an impossible timeline and nonexistent venue details from the accuser’s account.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in February 2025, a step that prevents the claims from being refiled, court papers cited by Reuters and The Associated Press confirmed. Jay-Z, whose full name is Shawn Carter, issued a statement at the time describing the suit as a “fictional tale” that was “laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims,” according to a New York Times report from February 14, 2025. He added that the experience had caused trauma to his wife, children and loved ones that “can never be dismissed,” the statement said.
Following the dismissal, Carter filed a separate defamation lawsuit in March 2025 in Alabama federal court against the accuser and her attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, asserting that they knew the allegations were fabricated, The New York Times reported on March 4, 2025. In that action, Carter’s team claimed the woman had admitted to his representatives that the story was false, though Buzbee responded that any such quotes attributed to her were “completely made up,” according to the same New York Times article. Buzbee had previously defended the accuser’s claims even after she acknowledged inconsistencies to NBC News, stating she stood by the core allegation of assault.
The case formed part of a wave of more than a dozen civil lawsuits filed by Buzbee against Combs in late 2024 alleging sexual misconduct, many of which have faced scrutiny over credibility, a Reuters dispatch from January 2025 noted. Combs, who has denied all wrongdoing in those cases, remains in custody ahead of a federal trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges scheduled for later in 2025, according to multiple Associated Press reports. Jay-Z has not been charged with any crime in connection with the matter and has maintained his innocence throughout.
In her latest declaration, the woman offered an unconditional apology to Carter and his family, with her attorney relaying that she “sincerely and unconditionally apologises,” NME reported. The development closes a legal chapter that began nearly two years earlier, though Carter’s defamation suit against the accuser and her legal team continues, filings cited by The New York Times indicate. Public attention on the matter had intensified due to the high profiles of both Carter, a billionaire music executive, and Combs, whose own legal troubles have drawn widespread coverage.
