Garth Brooks denies rape allegations in LA lawsuit
FILE – Garth Brooks speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Tennessee Titans new NFL football stadium, Feb. 29, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
LOS ANGELES – Garth Brooks was defending himself Friday against allegations made by a makeup and hair stylist who claims the country music superstar raped her in a Los Angeles hotel suite five years ago.
Brooks strongly denied the allegations in a statement, and noted that he had filed an earlier federal lawsuit last month in an attempt to prevent the woman from pursuing legal action, calling her allegations “untrue” and claiming the woman was trying to force him to give her money.
“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,” Brooks said in a statement in response to the woman’s lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.”
In her lawsuit, the anonymous plaintiff claims she initially began working as a makeup and hair stylist for country artist Trisha Yearwood in 1999. Yearwood married Brooks in 2005, and the plaintiff began working for Brooks in 2017, according to the suit.
The lawsuit contends that Brooks, aware that the woman was having financial difficulties, hired her more often to increase her pay, but “it did not take long for Brooks to take advantage of her financial hardship.”
The woman contends that she was at Brooks house in 2019 when Brooks walked up to her naked and put her hands on his genitals, saying “he had fantasized about this moment.”
She also claims that in May of that year, she traveled with Brooks to Los Angeles, where he was performing a Grammy tribute to Sam Moore. On that trip, Brooks only booked one hotel suite for the two of them, with only one bedroom, according to the suit.
Once they were in the hotel suite, Brooks again approached her naked, and this time pulled her onto the bed and raped her, the lawsuit alleges.
In his statement denying any wrongdoing, Brooks said, “I trust the system. I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. (CNS)
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