Garth Brooks has broken his silence after being accused of sexual assault and battery.
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” Brooks, 62, said Thursday, October 3, in a statement to Us Weekly.
“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of — ugly acts no human should ever do to another,” he continued. “We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character. We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides.”
“I want to play music tonight,” he added. “I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart these wonderful things are in question now. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”
Brooks was named in a Thursday, October 3, complaint obtained by CNN, in which an anonymous woman claimed that the country singer raped her in 2019 while she was working as a hairstylist for him.
In the lawsuit, the hairstylist (referred to as Jane Roe) alleged that she started working for Brooks in 2017 after frequently handling the glam for his wife, Trisha Yearwood. Roe also claimed that Brooks sent her sexually explicit text messages, repeatedly exposed his genitals in her presence and made “repeated remarks” about “having a threesome” with Yearwood, 60. (Brooks and Yearwood have been married since 2005 following respective divorces.)
Ahead of Roe’s lawsuit, Brooks anonymously filed a complaint to try to bar her from repeating the allegations and he vehemently denied her account.
“Defendant’s allegations are not true,” Brooks’ filing read, per CNN. “Defendant is well aware, however, of the substantial, irreparable damage such false allegations would do to Plaintiff’s well-earned reputation as a decent and caring person, along with the unavoidable damage to his family and the irreparable damage to his career and livelihood that would result if she made good on her threat to ‘publicly file’ her fabricated lawsuit.”
Roe’s attorneys, meanwhile, told CNN that Brooks was trying to “silence” Roe in an “act of desperation.”
“We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions,” attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker said in their statement to the outlet. “We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks. The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music.”
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Yearwood, for her part, has not addressed Brooks’ scandal. Several days before Roe’s lawsuit made headlines, Yearwood posted an Instagram photo of the married couple performing in Las Vegas late last month.
Last year, Brooks told Us Weekly that he was often “dependent” on Yearwood.
“I feel so helpless because there’s nothing I can’t do without her,” Brooks exclusively told Us in August 2023, months before they opened their joint Nashville bar. “There’s nothing I can’t do with her and there’s nothing I can do without her. It’s a blessing and a curse that you feel so free and independent when she’s there and you’re so dependent when she’s not there … I don’t think she feels this way at all, but I know I do.”
Before marrying Yearwood, the Grammy winner was married to first wife Sandy Mahl between 1986 and 2001. Three years after their wedding, Brooks admittedly cheated on Mahl, with whom he shares three daughters. They ultimately reconciled before splitting for good in 2000.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
