Photo: Bryn Lennon/Formula 1 via Getty Images
On Tuesday, GQ published a wide-ranging interview with Jay-Z, the rapper and business mogul’s first big sit-down in years. In the article, he spoke at length about the since-dropped 2024 lawsuit, in which an anonymous woman accused him of sexual assault. He called the allegations “heartbreaking” and recalled that the lawsuit “took a lot out of me.”
“I was angry. I haven’t been that angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger,” he said. “You don’t put that on someone — that’s a thing that you better be super sure.” The rapper said the allegations were “not true” and that he never considered settling the case, even though doing so could have been “cheaper” and “quicker.” “I can’t take a settlement — it ain’t in my DNA,” he said.
In October 2024, a Jane Doe filed a lawsuit accusing Diddy and another male celebrity of drugging and raping her at a MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000 when she was 13. Though the civil suit initially redacted the other man’s name, Jay-Z was later named in an amended version of the complaint. He emphatically denied the allegations, calling the suit “heinous in nature,” and filed a countersuit against Tony Buzbee, the woman’s lawyer, whom he accused of “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations” against him. (The countersuit has since been dismissed.)
Last February, the woman dropped her lawsuit after acknowledging inconsistencies in her account of the incident, though she maintained the allegations were true. Jay-Z filed a defamation lawsuit against the woman a few weeks later, accusing her and her lawyers of orchestrating an “evil conspiracy” that was “soullessly motivated by greed.” That case remains ongoing.
Jay-Z was named in the lawsuit two days before the 2024 premiere of Mufasa, the Lion King spinoff that both Beyoncé and then-12-year-old Blue Ivy Carter had voice roles in. He appeared on the red carpet with his family at the movie’s premiere. Speaking to GQ, Jay-Z said he considered skipping the event but ultimately went to support his family, who he said is a “tight unit.” “Blue has this jersey with ‘Jay-Z’ on the back. She put it on one day. She went to school with [it on],” he said. “I was just in the corner, like tears coming down. Seriously. To have that, it’s priceless. People can say that [they’ll always be there for you], but it’s very rare that you’re going to have to exercise it. And in the darkest moment for me, I got to see those sorts of things.”
Stay in touch.
The latest in style, self, culture, and power in your inbox.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
Related
