The end of 2024 should be a celebratory time for Beyonce, especially after the success of her first country album and learning last month that she had become the most nominated music artist in Grammy history.
But now, the megastar faces “heartbreak,” after her husband, Jay-Z, was accused in a lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl with his long-time friend and collaborator, Sean “Diddy” Combs at a 2000 MTV Video Music Awards after-party. The blockbuster allegation against Jay-Z, a billionaire rapper and hip-hop mogul, comes as part of the flurry of litigation against Combs, who is facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges and at least 30 lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct, the New York Times reported.
FILE – Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of “The Four: Battle For Stardom” at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
In a fiery statement, Jay-Z furiously denied the rape allegations, while lamenting how the “heinous” claims will hurt his famous wife and their three children, People reported. On Monday, Jay-Z’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him, saying that the plaintiff’s Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee is running a “cynical,” “calculated” and “sprawling extortion” scheme. Page Six and other outlets reported.
But legal experts said that Jay-Z’s motion may not end his Combs-related legal drama. The 55-year-old also faces scrutiny over his personal conduct over the years, including his friendship with Combs, his sometimes turbulent relationship with Beyonce, 43, and questions over when and how their romance began, according to Page Six and the Daily Mail.
“This is going to go one of two ways for Jay-Z,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said in an email to this news organization. “This will be a one-off case he’ll have to defend, and maybe still settle. Or this will be a #MeToo situation, other victims will come forward, and Jay-Z will be the next Diddy,” added Rahmani, president of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers.
“The question is, will the NFL and other celebrities distance themselves from him if that happens?” Rahmani asked, referring to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation being responsible for producing the Super Bowl halftime show.
“And what about Beyoncé?” Rahmani also asked.
Yes, what about Beyonce? While she and Jay-Z have presented a united front over the years, both have revealed that the marriage hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
In a 2017 interview that Jay-Z did with the New York Times, the rapper admitted he had been unfaithful to Beyonce, who he had been married to for nine years at the time. She addressed his cheating in her visual album, “Lemonade,” when she sang about “Becky with the good hair” in her track “Sorry.” He spoke to the Times about them being in an “uncomfortable” place that they had to work through.
“You know, most people walk away, and like divorce rate is like 50 percent or something ’cause most people can’t see themselves,” he said. “The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself.”
The couple’s relationship has long been a source of fascination for fans and for the wider public, even as their origin story remains a bit sketchy, according to the Daily Mail.
At one point, they were widely reported to have first met sometime in 1999 or 2000 when she was 18 and he was 30 — an age gap that raised eyebrows, the Daily Mail said. That time frame also overlaps with the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.
In interviews, both have talked about being friends for about a year and a half before their romance started. Beyonce told Seventeen magazine in 2008: “I was 18 when we first met, 19 when we first started dating.” According to the Daily Mail, she also told Oprah Winfrey in 2013. “We were friends first for a year and a half before we went on any dates.”
But Jay-Z himself said they first crossed path a couple years earlier, when she was 16. In 2013, Jay-Z wrote a gushing Instagram post about how he first “laid eyes” on his future wife “when she was 16” and thought, “she will be mine,” the Daily Mail reported.
However, in this Instagram post and in interviews, both Jay-Z and Beyonce insisted that nothing ever romantic ever happened until after she turned 18.
The pair went on to confirm their relationship when they appeared on the cover of Variety magazine in November 2001, with Jay-Z telling the publication that they were “just beginning to try to date each other.” They married in 2008.
Their 16-year marriage now faces another serious test, as Jay-Z admitted in the statement he released to the media Sunday.
“My only heartbreak is for my family,” the rapper said, according to People. “My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.”
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, added, “I mourn yet another loss of innocence.” The couple share 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and 7-year-old twins, Rumi and Sir.
The lawsuit impacting Jay-Z was originally filed in October, with an unnamed woman accusing Combs and an anonymous male celebrity of raping the 13-year-old at the after-party. Combs has denied all allegations of sexual assault and misconduct and has pleaded not guilty to the federal criminal charges against him.
The woman amended the lawsuit Sunday to name Jay-Z as the other celebrity, asserting in court papers that he and Combs took turns raping her after she arrived at the party and drank part of a drink that made her feel “woozy and lightheaded,” the New York Times reported.
Jay-Z called the claims “idiotic” and said that he came from a world where “we protect children.”
His “aggressive” stance against the lawsuit is probably necessarily to defend himself legally and to protect “his brand in the eyes of public opinion … with the goal of showing he is the victim,” Los Angeles entertainment attorney Tre Lovell also said in an email.
But for Jay-Z to save his reputation, it will ultimately get down to the evidence, whether it substantiates Jay-Z’s claim that he is a victim of an extortion scheme.
“If it becomes clear that Jay-Z likely did not commit these acts, and there was no good faith basis to believe that he did, then his lawsuit will have some teeth,” Lovell said. “Victims can’t threaten to sue celebrities based on allegations that will certainly damage their reputation or brand without a good faith basis to believe the claims are true.”
But if Jane Doe had a “good faith basis” for her claims, Jay-Z won’t get very far with his “extortion” allegations, Lovell said.