In a startling development, renowned country music icon Garth Brooks has been implicated in a lawsuit alleging rape and sexual assault, filed on Thursday. An unnamed plaintiff, who served as Brooks’ makeup artist, claims to have endured persistent harassment during her employment, culminating in a purported incident of rape in 2019. The woman alleges that Brooks subsequently attempted to portray himself as a victim after filing his own lawsuit against her last month.
Responding to the accusations, Brooks issued a statement late Thursday vehemently denying the allegations. He expressed that he has been relentlessly subjected to threats, fabrications, and distressing narratives about his future unless he acquiesced to demands for substantial monetary compensation. “It has felt akin to having a loaded gun pointed at me,” he stated.
The lawsuit, lodged in a California Superior Court, identifies the woman only as Jane Roe. According to her attorneys, she had been contracted to provide makeup services for Brooks’ wife, Trisha Yearwood, since 1999. The plaintiff asserts that she faced financial hardship in 2019 and that Brooks offered her additional work as a form of assistance.
The allegations suggest that Brooks exploited her vulnerability. She claims that later in 2019, he exposed his genitals to her and, on another occasion, raped her in a hotel suite in Los Angeles while preparing for a Grammy tribute.
The legal complaint describes a chilling scenario: “With chilling indifference toward Ms. Roe, once Brooks was done, it was business as usual.” It details how she hurriedly styled his hair and applied his makeup to ensure his punctuality for the event.
The woman also mentions that following the alleged assault, Brooks received a mysterious text message suggesting that he had “ruined his life.” At the time, she had not been employed by him for several months, leading Brooks to suspect that the text may have originated from her husband, according to the lawsuit.
In another troubling account, Brooks allegedly confided to her, “That’s what I thought. Oh no! I was trying to find you to discuss … or whatever I needed to do, but I don’t want to harm anyone, man. I just felt terrible.”
Throughout her tenure working for Brooks, which lasted from 2017 to 2021, the woman claims he also sent her sexually explicit messages, frequently changed clothes in her presence, and groped her while she was engaged in her duties.
She is pursuing legal action for sexual battery and assault, seeking both monetary and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and a jury trial.
In a counter-move, Brooks filed a federal lawsuit against the woman last month, alleging she is attempting to extort him and damage his reputation due to his refusal to employ her as a salaried worker or provide her with medical benefits.
Brooks asserts that the woman sent him a letter in July accusing him of sexual assault and alleging that he was plotting to kill her, as per his lawsuit. He further claims that in a subsequent letter, she threatened to keep her allegations private in exchange for millions of dollars.
In his statement, Brooks remarked, “Hush money, regardless of the amount, is still hush money. To me, that signifies an admission of conduct I am incapable of — heinous acts no person should ever inflict upon another.”
He is also seeking monetary and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and a jury trial, along with a court declaration asserting the falsity of the woman’s claims. Brooks concluded with a declaration of faith in the judicial system: “I trust the system; I do not fear the truth, and I am not the individual they have depicted me to be.”