Garth Brooks, Accused of Sexual Assault & Battery, Tried to Block New Lawsuit: Report

Heavy/Getty Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood

Country superstar Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a lawsuit he tried to block before it was filed on October 3, 2024, according to CNN.

Early in the day, CNN reported that in mid-September, an anonymous “celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee” filed a lawsuit as “John Doe,” asking a federal court in Mississippi to block a sexual assault accuser from filing her lawsuit and publicizing her claims. The celebrity, who has since been identified as Brooks, per CNN, claimed the woman was attempting to extort him by making “false allegations” that could “irreparably harm” his reputation and career.

According to CNN, the woman filed a formal response under the name “Jane Roe” through her attorney, who wrote, “Mr. Doe believes that he is entitled to the same protection victims receive – not to prevent unnecessary re-traumatization, but rather, to maintain his celebrity ‘reputation.'”

Roe then moved forward with her lawsuit on October 3, outing Brooks as the defendant and claiming that while working for him as a makeup artist, he raped her in 2019 and sexually assaulted her on other occasions.

Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood’s Makeup Artist Files Says There’s a Side to Him That He ‘Conceals From the Public’

The lawsuit, according to USA Today, was filed in a California court and alleges that Brooks raped Roe in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2019. Roe said in her lawsuit, per USA Today, that she’s a celebrity makeup artist who started working with Brooks’ wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, in 1999 and that she works with “many other celebrities.” Roe said she also began to work with Brooks in 2017, providing make-up and hair styling services, USA Today said.

Roe claims in her lawsuit, USA Today reported, that Brooks “seized what he saw as an opportunity to subject a female employee” to a side of himself that he “conceals from the public.”

“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,” Roe said in her filing, per USA Today.

According to TMZ, the suit says Roe traveled with Brooks in 2019 for a Grammy tribute to Sam Moore, and that she claims Brooks only reserved one hotel room, refusing to get a separate one for her. The outlet reported that Roe shared graphic details of the incident in her lawsuit, claiming Garth appeared in a hotel doorway completely naked, dragged her into another room and raped her.

Roe also said in the lawsuit, per TMZ, that after the incident, Brooks carried on as if nothing had happened and that she felt trapped because she was “dealing with financial hardships and needed the work.”

The lawsuit, according to Deadline, outlined multiple incidents of “painful and traumatic” rape, battery and other assaults. The outlet said Roe is asking the court to award unspecified damages. At the time of publication, Brooks had not responded to the allegations.

Garth Brooks Said 2 Days Before Lawsuit That He & Wife Trisha Yearwood Have ‘Greatest Love Story’ in History

Two days before the bombshell lawsuit was filed, Brooks and Yearwood — who will mark their 20th wedding anniversary in 2025 — were in St. Paul, Minnesota, to celebrate former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalyn Carter’s dedication to Habitat for Humanity, according to Parade.

Leading thousands of volunteers in a build event for the organization, Brooks and Yearwood talked about how much the Carters, who were married for 77 years, had inspired them not only to dedicate their resources to building homes for those in need, but also “how to try to be in a marriage that lasts over seventy years,” Yearwood told Parade.

“I cannot love them and thank them enough for being walking examples for us as a married couple, for us as human beings, and for us down here on this planet,” Brooks told the outlet.

The “Thunder Road” singer also told Parade that he believes he and Yearwood’s union is the “greatest love story in the history of the planet.”

“So it’s always nice when you see somebody else that might be lucky enough to share the same thing,” he added.