Woman accuses country star Garth Brooks of rape in lawsuit, singer denies allegations

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawsuit filed Thursday by an unidentified woman who worked for country singer Garth Brooks accuses him of raping her in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2019. According to the Associated Press, Brooks has denied the allegations and confirmed that he previously filed a lawsuit in Mississippi to block the woman's lawsuit.

The woman – identified in her lawsuit as Jane Roe – says she was employed as a hair and makeup stylist for Brooks and traveled with him from Nashville before the Grammy Awards in October 2019. The lawsuit alleges that Brooks booked a single hotel suite for both of them, and Brooks appeared naked in the bedroom doorway before raping the woman.

The lawsuit also alleges that in early 2019, while at Brooks' home, the woman was forced by the singer to touch his genitals. She also claims Brooks would describe sexual fantasies to her and send explicit text messages. The woman says she continued to work for Brooks because she was in financial trouble – which she said Brooks knew and was exploiting her – and needed the money.

In a statement released after the lawsuit was filed, Brooks vehemently denied the allegations and said he had attempted to anonymously block the lawsuit “for the benefit of the families on both sides.” The lawsuit filed by Brooks asked the judge to block the woman's lawsuit to prevent his accuser from “intentionally causing emotional distress, defamation, and invasion of privacy under false pretenses.”

Brooks says he first learned of the allegations in July and was threatened that the allegations would become public if he didn't give the woman millions of dollars.

“For the past two months, I have been harassed endlessly with threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future would be if I did not write a multi-million dollar check,” Brooks' statement said. “It was like a loaded gun was being waved in my face.”

The statement ended with Brooks saying, “I trust the system, I am not afraid of the truth and I am not the man they made me out to be.”

The AP reports that an email to the woman's attorney asking whether she had reported the allegations to police was not immediately returned.