Jay-Z has dropped the woman who accused him of rape from his ongoing lawsuit after she formally recanted her allegations.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed an 11-page declaration on September 24, 2026, in which she said her allegations against Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter were false.
“Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter,” Doe stated in the declaration.
She added that Carter “never engaged in any inappropriate conduct” toward her and said there was “no truth” to her claims against him.
“I understand my false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering and damage that can never be fully undone,” she wrote.
The latest development has changed the direction of the legal dispute. While Jay-Z has dismissed Doe from his lawsuit, he is continuing the case against her former attorney Tony Buzbee and the Buzbee Law Firm.
Doe’s recantation came as part of the legal proceedings stemming from Jay-Z’s lawsuit against her and her former legal representatives.
Carter sued Doe, Buzbee and the Texas-based law firm after the sexual-assault allegations were made public, accusing them of malicious prosecution and defamation. His legal team has alleged that Buzbee attempted to pressure him into a financial settlement after sending an “extortionate demand letter.” Carter has denied the sexual-assault allegations from the beginning.
Following Doe’s latest declaration, Carter’s lawyers filed notice that they were voluntarily dismissing her from the case. The rapper’s legal fight against Buzbee and his firm, however, remains active.
Doe also stated that she had not received, and had not been promised, financial compensation for making the new declaration.
Her current lawyer, James Blair Newman Jr., said Doe’s position is that she experienced a sexual assault but wrongly identified Jay-Z 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.
He added that Carter did not rape or sexually assault Doe and that she had never met him.
Doe first filed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs in October 2024.
She alleged that she was 13 years old when she attended a party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, where she claimed she was drugged and sexually assaulted.
The original complaint did not initially name Jay-Z. The lawsuit was later amended in December 2024 to identify Carter as an alleged participant. Jay-Z and Combs denied the allegations.
Doe eventually voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against the two musicians with prejudice in February 2025. That dismissal prevented her from bringing the same claims again in that court.
The latest court declaration goes further than the 2025 dismissal because Doe has now expressly stated that her allegations against Jay-Z were false.
Doe now alleges that the lawyers who handled her case did not conduct an independent investigation or obtain corroborating evidence before filing the lawsuit. Reuters reported that she also said she was never given a draft of the original complaint to review before it was filed.
She said she began questioning her allegations against Carter in January 2025 and even began doubting whether she had attended a celebrity party at all.
Buzbee has rejected the suggestion that his legal team simply accepted an unverified story and filed it without investigation. The attorney said Doe had spoken to several lawyers before he became involved and had consistently maintained the same account.
“Jane Doe told her story to four lawyers and then me. Each time consistent,” Buzbee told the Houston Chronicle.
He also said she had signed four sworn affidavits supporting the earlier account.
“We will have to file something soon where we will show clearly what we believe to be going on,” Buzbee said.
