Garth Brooks is preparing for potential legal action.
In a video from his Facebook Live show Inside Studio G released Monday, Oct. 7, the country singer, 62, addressed the possibility of a two-year legal battle following sexual assault allegations against him.
“A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Let’s address the elephant in the room, shall we?” Brooks said at the beginning of the Oct. 7 video. “This thing is on; it will happen.”
“People tell me it could take up to two years. My suggestion is that we all take a deep breath, settle down, hold hands and go on a journey together. Because that’s something we can’t talk about. That’s all we can say about it.”
Brooks then changed the subject to discuss his recent Habitat for Humanity trip with wife Trisha Yearwood and residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Trisha Yearwood sold a house in Tennessee the day before Garth Brooks was sued for rape
The Facebook video and brief admission to the allegations comes days after Brooks’ former hair and makeup artist, who goes by the name “Jane Roe,” filed a lawsuit in California on Oct. 3, obtained by PEOPLE. Roe, who worked with Brooks for 15 years, accused him of inappropriate behavior that began in 2019 when she was at his home for a styling appointment.
Roe claims she found Brooks naked getting out of the shower with an erection and forced her to touch his penis and asked her to have sex, the complaint states. She further states that in the summer of 2019 Brooks raped her while she was working for an event.
After the alleged sexual assault, she alleged in the lawsuit that “Brooks increased the frequency of speaking his sexual fantasies about her out loud, along with physically groping her breasts while she was doing his hair and makeup.”
Garth Brooks in Nashville in May 2023.
Jason Kempin/Getty
While Roe worked for Brooks, the complaint alleged that she encountered him “regularly changing his clothes” in front of her and that he would “often intentionally” expose himself. Brooks also allegedly told her about his “sexual fantasies” and sent her “sexually explicit text messages.”
The lawsuit says Roe stopped working for Brooks in mid-2021 and moved to Mississippi.
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Brooks claimed that the plaintiff sent him a “demand letter” before filing the lawsuit and alleged that Roe was trying to extort him. In his lawsuit filed in Mississippi on Sept. 13, Brooks claimed Roe told him she asked him for money when she ran into “financial difficulties” when she moved from Tennessee to Mississippi in 2020. The country star agreed out of loyalty and friendship, and kept asking for more money.
However, she reportedly increased her “claims for paid work and health benefits.” Brooks’ lawsuit claims she created “false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct” in a “confidential filing” by Roe’s attorneys in July, which listed several “celebrity sexual misconduct lawsuits involving multimillion-dollar jury awards.”
The letter contains allegations of sexual assault, according to Brooks’ lawsuit, and threats to publicly expose it unless he pays her millions of dollars.
In another letter in August, Doe allegedly offered not to file a lawsuit in exchange for a million-dollar payment, Brooks’ complaint says. He argued that Roe knew how much damage the sexual assault allegations would do to his career, and Roe eventually filed suit on October 3.
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Garth Brooks 2024.
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Brooks released a statement in response to the allegations, claiming the accuser was out to extort him.
“For the past two months, I have been tormented endlessly with threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future would have been if I had not written a multi-million dollar check,” Brooks said in a statement to PEOPLE on Oct. 3. “It was like they were waving a loaded gun in my face.”
“Shish money, no matter how much or how little, is still secret money. In my view, that means I’m condoning behavior I’m incapable of—ugly acts that no one should do to another,” the statement continued.
“We filed a lawsuit against this person almost a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation. We submitted it anonymously because of the families on both sides.”
“I want to play music tonight,” Brooks added. “I want to continue our good works and beyond. It breaks my heart that these wonderful things are at stake now. I trust the system, I’m not afraid of the truth and I’m not the man they made me out to be.”
After Brooks spoke, attorney Douglas H. Wigdor, who represented the woman, said in a statement: “We are very confident in our case and in time the public will see his true character, not his highly curated persona.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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Source: HIS Education