The woman who accused Jay-Z of sexually assaulting her in a lawsuit has now completely withdrawn her allegations, saying she never met or spoke to the rapper and that there was no truth to her claims against him.
The woman, who has been identified in court filings as Jane Doe, made the admission in a 12-page declaration filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, September 24, 2026.
In the declaration, she stated that Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter never raped her, never sexually assaulted her and never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward her.
She also said she had never met or spoken to the Roc Nation founder.
“There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter,” she wrote in the sworn declaration, adding that she understood her previous accusations had caused Carter and his family significant pain and damage.
Jay-Z accuser apologises
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Jane Doe said she was not promised or given any money in exchange for making the new declaration.
Her attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., also issued a statement saying that his client still maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but was “entirely mistaken” when she identified Jay-Z as the person responsible.
Newman said Carter did not rape or sexually assault the woman and that she had never met him.
He added that she was sincerely apologising to Jay-Z and his family.
The latest declaration came as Carter voluntarily dismissed Jane Doe as a defendant in his ongoing malicious-prosecution case against attorney Tony Buzbee and his Texas-based law firm.
How Jay-Z became involved in the lawsuit
The original lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and initially focused on allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The woman alleged that she had been sexually assaulted when she was 13 following an afterparty connected to the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. The initial complaint also referred to an unidentified male celebrity.
Jay-Z was later identified as that unnamed celebrity in an amended complaint filed in December 2024.
Carter strongly denied the allegations from the beginning and later launched legal action against Buzbee and others, accusing them of malicious prosecution and attempting to pressure him into a financial settlement.
The woman eventually voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit against Carter and Combs in early 2025 after acknowledging inconsistencies in her account.
Woman says she began questioning her own story
In the new declaration, Jane Doe provided additional details about how the case began.
She said she responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking people with sexual-assault claims against Combs in late September or early October 2024.
According to her account, the advertisement triggered memories of an alleged assault when she was 13. She subsequently completed an online form and received a call seeking more information.
She said she initially described herself as a model who had attended an afterparty following the Teen Choice Awards in New York in 2000. Her eventual lawsuit, however, referred to the MTV Video Music Awards.
Jane Doe also alleged that her original lawsuit was filed without her knowledge and without sufficient independent investigation by her legal team.
She said she was given $1,200 in cash when she travelled to Houston for an NBC News interview in December 2024 and was later asked to take a polygraph test because of discrepancies in her account.
According to the declaration, she never received the results.
By January 2025, she said she had begun questioning whether her allegations against Carter were accurate and even doubted whether she had attended a celebrity party at all.
Buzbee disputes her latest account
Buzbee has disputed aspects of Jane Doe’s latest declaration.
Speaking to Rolling Stone on Thursday, September 24, he said he had not yet seen the new declaration but claimed that several lawyers had dealt with Doe before he met her.
Buzbee said she had given the same account to multiple lawyers and suggested that her latest version represented new information.
The dispute is significant because Carter’s remaining legal battle with Buzbee concerns whether the original allegations were pursued improperly.
A California appeals court earlier this month upheld the dismissal of Carter’s separate lawsuit against Buzbee, ruling that the attorney’s pre-litigation demand letter was protected because it was sent in anticipation of a lawsuit. The court also said there was no evidence Buzbee knowingly made false accusations or acted with reckless disregard for their truth.
Jay-Z’s legal battle continues
The latest declaration changes the position of the woman who originally brought the case, but it does not automatically resolve Carter’s remaining lawsuit against Buzbee and his firm.
Carter has alleged that the lawyers should have known the accusations were contradicted by publicly available information and inconsistencies in the woman’s account.
Buzbee, however, has maintained that his firm believed the allegations when it pursued the case.
For now, Jane Doe’s sworn declaration represents a dramatic reversal of the allegations that placed Jay-Z at the centre of the high-profile legal dispute in late 2024.
The rapper has consistently denied the accusations, while the latest filing explicitly states that he never sexually assaulted the woman and that she had never met or spoken with him.
