The woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 has formally admitted her claims were false. In a sworn declaration filed Thursday, Sept. 24, in Manhattan federal court, the Alabama woman known as Jane Doe said she never met or spoke to Shawn Carter. She said he never did anything inappropriate to her. Carter then dropped her from his lawsuit.
The reversal comes nearly two years after she named the Roc Nation founder in a lawsuit alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs. The suit claimed both men assaulted her at a party after the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. She dropped that case in February 2025. Now she has gone further, under penalty of perjury, and apologized for the pain she says her false accusations caused him.
What did Jay-Z’s accuser admit in her declaration?
She admitted almost everything. In the filing, which runs 12 pages, she said a Facebook ad in fall 2024 seeking people with sexual assault claims against Combs triggered memories of being raped as a child. She filled out a form and got a phone call. She said she never reviewed the lawsuit before it was filed. She also said she disclosed mental health conditions to her legal team before they named Carter in December 2024.
One detail stands out. During that first call, she said, she described an afterparty following the Teen Choice Awards, not the VMAs where her lawsuit later placed the attack.
She said she received no money from Carter for the declaration and was never threatened by anyone working for him. She also said her own lawyers handed her $1,200 in cash when she traveled to Houston for an NBC News interview.
How did the story flip so dramatically?
The turnaround plays like a movie. According to Carter’s amended complaint, she posted a TikTok in April 2025 lip syncing audio that suggested she was standing by her story and would never make an apology video. Seventeen months later, the apology exists, and it is sworn.
It also vindicates the stance Jay-Z made central to this fight. He told GQ in March that settling simply was not in his DNA. His attorney, Alex Spiro, spent months attacking the timeline. Spiro pointed out that Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, a celebrity she said she spoke with at the party, was on tour in the Midwest that night.
Does this mean she was never assaulted?
Not according to her. Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said she still maintains she was sexually assaulted as a child but was entirely mistaken in identifying Carter.
That nuance deserves room. Black women and girls who come forward are too often doubted, and one recanted claim should never become ammunition against real survivors. At the same time, a false accusation against a Black man with Jay-Z’s profile carries its own brutal weight. He has said the ordeal left lasting trauma on Beyoncé, their children and his loved ones.
What happens next in the Jay-Z case?
The fight now narrows to Tony Buzbee. Carter’s malicious prosecution lawsuit in New York accuses the Houston attorney and his firm of pushing claims they should have known were contradicted and unsupported.
Buzbee told Rolling Stone he had not seen the declaration. He said at least four lawyers heard the same story from her before he ever did. He described the cash as petty money for meals and travel. His team filed a Sept. 1 motion to dismiss, calling Carter’s suit abusive.
Carter has already lost one round. A California appeals court this month upheld the dismissal of his extortion case against Buzbee, ruling the demand letter was protected because it came before a lawsuit.
The financial stakes are real. Carter has claimed the accusations cost Roc Nation a contract with a $20 million minimum fee guarantee.
Jane Doe is out of the case. Buzbee is the last man standing. The next ruling will decide whether Jay-Z’s refusal to fold ends as a full legal win or remains a personal one.
