The anonymous woman said in a court declaration that her allegations against the rapper were false and apologized for the harm they caused.
NEW YORK CITY, NY — An anonymous woman who accused rapper Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally retracted the allegation, saying in a court declaration that she never met or spoke with him and that her claims against him were false.
The declaration marks a significant turn in a legal dispute that began with allegations made in 2024 and continued even after the woman voluntarily dismissed her civil lawsuit in February 2025. Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, had repeatedly denied the accusation. The woman now says Carter never raped or sexually assaulted her and never engaged in inappropriate conduct toward her.
“Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter,” the woman said in the declaration filed Thursday in federal court in New York. She added that there was “no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter.” The woman also apologized for the harm she said her false accusations caused Carter, his family and his reputation.
The woman had initially sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2024 and later amended her complaint to name Carter. She alleged that Carter and Combs sexually assaulted her after an MTV Video Music Awards event in New York in 2000, when she was 13. Both men denied the allegations. The woman voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice in February 2025, meaning the claims in that case could not be refiled.
In her new declaration, the woman said the case began after she responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking people who might have sexual assault claims involving Combs. She said the advertisement triggered memories of being sexually assaulted when she was 13. She was connected with lawyers and eventually represented by attorney Tony Buzbee’s firm. The woman said that by January 2025 she had begun doubting her claims against Carter and also questioned whether she had attended a celebrity party at all.
The woman alleged in the declaration that her claims were not adequately investigated before litigation was filed. She said attorneys did not ask her for proof or corroborating witnesses before the lawsuit moved forward and that she was not provided a draft of the initial complaint before it was filed. Buzbee disputed aspects of her account. He told Rolling Stone that the case had been referred to his firm by another law firm and that the woman had given the same account to several lawyers. He also said his firm hired a former major-crimes detective to examine her allegations.
The woman’s current attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said she maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault but was mistaken when she identified Carter. Newman said Carter did not rape or sexually assault her, did not engage in inappropriate conduct toward her and had never met her. The declaration also says the woman was not threatened by Carter or his representatives and did not receive money or a promise of compensation from his team for retracting her allegations.
Carter pursued litigation of his own after the original accusation, alleging malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing involving the woman and lawyers who represented her. He argued that the accusations should never have been brought against him and said the episode caused serious harm to him and his family. Carter has now voluntarily dismissed the woman as a defendant following her declaration.
The legal fight involving Buzbee and his firm, however, is continuing. Carter alleges that the lawyers should have recognized problems with the woman’s account before naming him in the sexual assault lawsuit. Buzbee and his attorneys have challenged Carter’s claims and denied wrongdoing. In responding to the woman’s latest declaration, Buzbee said her assertion that she had lied to his firm and the court was new information.
The retraction goes further than the woman’s February 2025 decision to dismiss her original lawsuit because she is now expressly saying the allegations against Carter were false and that she never met him. Carter’s remaining malicious-prosecution litigation against Buzbee and his law firm remains pending, leaving the conduct surrounding the filing and handling of the original allegations at the center of the continuing dispute.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 26, 2026.