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The country music megastar has been hit with a lawsuit and rape allegations against a makeup artist

The country music megastar has been hit with a lawsuit and rape allegations against a makeup artist

A woman claims in a lawsuit that Garth Brooks raped her while she worked as a hairdresser and makeup artist for the country star.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, is referred to as Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed Thursday in California, according to reports from People and several media outlets.

She claims Brooks, 62, raped her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2019. She says Brooks only booked a hotel room after they flew to a tribute concert on his private jet.

On another occasion that same year, she says, the singer stood naked in front of her and placed her hands on his genitals. She says it wasn't the only time he exposed himself.

Brooks also sent her texts that contained explicit material, she says.

The woman says that before she was hired by Brooks in 2017, she had worked for country star Trisha Yearwood, Brooks' wife, since 1999. Yearwood, 60, married Brooks in 2005.

In the lawsuit, she says Brooks took advantage of her financial problems, knowing she needed the work.

“Brooks took what he believed was an opportunity to introduce to a female employee a side of Brooks that he was hiding from the public,” the lawsuit says. “This side of Brooks believes that he is entitled to sexual satisfaction when he wants it and that using a female employee to provide it is fair game.”

She says Brooks got out of the shower in 2019, exposed himself to her and asked her to “perform oral sex on him.”

The woman says she no longer worked for Brooks as of 2021.

In September, Brooks tried to stop the lawsuit by filing his own anonymous lawsuit in Mississippi – as John Doe – denying the woman's claims. He said she threatened to go public with the allegations unless he paid him a large sum of money.

“Over 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 said in a statement to People and other outlets. “It was like a loaded gun was being waved in my face.”

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money,” he said. “In my opinion, this means that I am admitting to behavior that I am incapable of – ugly acts that no human being should ever do to another. We filed a lawsuit against this person almost a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of reputation. In the interest of the families of both sides, we filed the complaint anonymously.”

“I trust the system,” he said in another part of the statement. “I’m not afraid of the truth, and I’m not the man they made me out to be.”

On Thursday evening, Brooks shared a photo on Instagram from his concert in Las Vegas, where he has a residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

“If there was ever a night I really needed this, it was TONIGHT!” he told his 1.9 million followers in the post. “Thank you for my life!!!!”

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Amy Kuperinsky can be reached at [email protected] and followed at @AmyKup.

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