Garth Brooks Accused of Rape and Sexual Assault by Former Makeup Artist

Country music star Garth Brooks allegedly raped and sexually assaulted a female hair and makeup artist who worked for him and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, according to a lawsuit filed against the musician in California on Thursday.

An unnamed woman, identified in court documents as Jane Roe, said that she began working with Yearwood in 1999, as well as for Brooks beginning in 2017. In 2019, facing financial difficulties, she took on additional work with Brooks for more pay. That same year, according to the suit, he exposed his genitals to her and forced her to touch them, and in a separate incident, raped her while she helped him prepare for a televised Grammys tribute.

“With cold disregard for Ms. Roe, when Brooks was finished, it was business as usual,” the complaint alleges of the rape. “Ms. Roe worked quickly to style his hair and do his make-up for the event so he was on time.”

“Brooks seized what he saw as an opportunity to subject a female employee to a side of Brooks that he conceals from the public,” the complaint reads. “This side of Brooks believes he is entitled to sexual gratification when he wants it, and using a female employee to get it, is fair game.”

In a statement to Vanity Fair, Brooks said Friday, “For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.”

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money,” the statement continued. “In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”

According to the lawsuit, Brooks also sent her sexually explicit texts, groped her on multiple occasions, and often changed his clothes in front of her. The filing accuses Brooks of sexual battery and assault, with requests for a jury trial, monetary and punitive damages, and for payment of attorney fees.

Brooks preemptively filed a lawsuit against Roe in Mississippi, where she lives, on September 13, using a John Doe pseudonym in his court filing. According to court documents, Brooks accused Roe of “ongoing attempted extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress through outrageous conduct including the publication and threatened wider publication of false allegations of sexual misconduct that would irreparably harm Plaintiff’s reputation, family, career and livelihood.”

In the documents, Brooks claims Roe asked him for financial help in 2020, which he provided “out of loyalty, friendship, and a desire to improve Defendant’s condition.” Later, she asked for more, escalating to a salary and medical benefits. When he said no, “she responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago,” the suit claims.

In mid-July, according to the suit, Roe sent Brooks a “demand letter” “alleging a litany of sexual misconduct,” and also accused Brooks of a plan to hire someone to murder her. The letter said that in exchange for “millions of dollars,” she would not file a suit. Similar demands were made in another letter, the suit claims, in August.

Brooks’s suit also asked for a jury trial against Roe, attorney fees, and punitive and financial damages for “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy, including incidental and consequential damages,” as well as “a declaratory judgment that Defendant’s allegations against him of sexual misconduct are untrue.”

After news of the allegations against him became public on Thursday, Brooks performed in Las Vegas. He posted a photo of himself on stage on his Instagram page, and captioned the image, “If there was ever a night that I really needed this, TONIGHT was that night! Thank you for my life!!!!! love, g”

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Jane Roe is represented by attorney Douglas H. Wigdor, who also represented Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in her 2023 sexual abuse suit against her former partner, Sean “Diddy” Combs. That suit was settled without going to court; the terms of the settlement are not public.

“I cannot get into settlement discussions, but the suggestion made by Brooks that he was unwilling to pay millions is simply not true,” Wigdor said in a statement to VF. “It seems as though Sean Combs and Garth Brooks are using the same public relations team by attacking legitimate victims. We are very confident in our case and over time the public will see his true character rather than his highly curated persona.” (Wigdor didn’t respond to an additional request for comment on Brooks’s claim of attempted extortion.)

In the complaint filed by Wigdor on behalf of Jane Roe, he characterized Brooks’s Mississippi lawsuit as “abusive” and “a blatant attempt to further control and bully his sexual assault victim by utilizing his multi-millionaire resources to game the legal system.”