A woman who says she worked as a hair and makeup stylist for Garth Brooks alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she was raped at a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.
The woman did not use her name and became Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
She said the attack happened while she was traveling with Brooks from Nashville to Los Angeles, where she was performing at the Grammy Awards concert in October 2019.
The woman said in the lawsuit that she had worked for Brooks’ wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999, and also began working for Brooks in 2017.
In a statement provided to CBS News on Friday night, Brooks said he had filed his own lawsuit “anonymously” nearly a month ago against the plaintiffs for “extortion and defamation of character.”
“For the last two months, I’ve been bombarded with threats, lies, and tragic stories about my future if I don’t write a check for millions of dollars,” Brooks said. “It’s like having a loaded gun waved in the face. Hush money, no matter how much or how little, it’s still hush money. In my mind, it means that I admit my behavior can’t – bad and not human. I have to do it for others. We filed a lawsuit against this person almost a month ago to speak out of extortion and defamation of our good character forward. It breaks my heart these good things now I believe in the system, I am not afraid of the truth, and I am not the person depicted.
According to the lawsuit filed by the woman there, Brooks usually traveled with a group, but the two were alone in a private jet, and he booked only one hotel suite for two people. The woman said that in the room, she was seen naked at the bedroom door and raped.
The suit says she then carried on as if nothing had happened and expected her to do her hair and makeup right after.
She said that earlier in 2019, when she was at Brooks’ house, he appeared naked in front of her, grabbed her hand, and put it on her genitals.
The lawsuit says Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi last month, where he and the woman were not identified.
The woman’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, acknowledged Brooks’ “preemptive complaint” in his own statement to CBS News.
“We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with a complaint against Garth Brooks,” Wigdor said. “The complaint filed today shows that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industry but also in the world of country music. We believe that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and efforts to silence his clients. us through filing a preemptive complaint in Mississippi is nothing more than an act of desperation and an attempt at intimidation We encourage others who may be victims to contact us because no survivor should have to suffer in silence.
The lawsuit does not say whether the woman reported the incident to authorities. CBS News has also reached out to Yearwood’s representatives for comment on the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit filed by Brooks, the plaintiffs, who are represented by John Doe, said the allegations were “untrue” and that they first learned about them in July when he threatened to sue unless he gave him millions of dollars.
He asked the judge to stop the woman from “deliberate infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy.”
The woman’s suit also said Brooks exposed himself to her too many times and talked about sexual fantasies with her and sent her explicit text messages.
He said he was forced to stay at Brooks because of financial difficulties, which he understood and benefited from.
Oklahoma-born Brooks, 62, was one of country music’s biggest stars in the 1990s, with hits including “Friends in Low Places” and “The Thunder Rolls.” He brings an arena-rock theatrics to his concerts and a pop music sensibility to his recordings. He was a huge success that went beyond the typical country audience.
She married country star Yearwood in 2005.