Garth Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit against his sexual assault accuser in which he claimed to be the victim, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The country music star, 62, claimed she was an extortionist who threatened to ruin his reputation if she did not receive a multimillion-dollar payment, according to her lawsuit.
Brooks’ lawsuit, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, was filed anonymously in federal court in Mississippi last month after receiving a “demand letter” from his attorney.
At the time he was aware that his former makeup artist, known only as Jane Roe, was preparing to file her own civil lawsuit in California.
Brooks’ complaint takes a very different spin than the facts alleged in Thursday’s filing that accused him of assault, sexual assault and gender-based violence.
Garth Brooks, 62, has been sued by a makeup artist who worked for his wife of nearly two decades, Trisha Yearwood, 60; Brooks and Yearwood appear in the photo in 2023
Roe insisted that she was exposed to a sexually hostile work environment and was ultimately raped by Brooks on a work trip to Los Angeles in 2019.
But the singer denied such acts and stated that her complaint was a theft of money motivated by financial difficulties that she wanted him to solve.
Far from fleeing an abusive employer, Brooks alleged that Roe sued him only after he refused to give her a salaried job with health benefits.
According to Brooks, she did so after numerous threats to sue unless he paid her “millions of dollars not to sue.”
DailyMail.com has discovered that Brooks is the person behind the Mississippi lawsuit after Roe lawyers revealed that the megastar had filed a preemptive lawsuit in the state.
Roe worked for Brooks as an independent contractor for approximately 15 years before moving from Tennessee to Mississippi in May 2020.
Brooks, who filed as ‘John Doe,’ stated: ‘Shortly after moving to Mississippi, the defendant apparently encountered financial difficulties and asked the plaintiff for financial assistance.
‘The plaintiff complied out of loyalty, friendship and a desire to improve the condition of the defendant.
“But defendant’s demands for financial assistance only increased, and defendant eventually asked plaintiff for salaried employment and health benefits.”
Brooks is pictured at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, holding an Icon Award
Brooks identified himself as ‘John Doe’ and argued his need for anonymity in the court record, hoping the matter would never become public if the woman did not comply.
Brooks refused and, he claimed, “she responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct that she claims occurred years ago.”
An attorney representing Roe on July 17 sent Brooks a “demand letter alleging a litany of sexual misconduct…ranging from accusations of sexual “grooming,” creating a sexually hostile work environment, sexual touching wanted and sexual assault”.
In her lawsuit, Brooks claimed that Roe also alleged her belief that he “planned to hire someone to murder her.” This allegation was not included in Roe’s own lawsuit.
Brooks stated that the demand letter was the first time he had heard of any of the allegations being made against him.
He claimed the letter threatened to “publicly file” a civil complaint (a draft of which was included) unless he “agreed to pay…millions of dollars.”
“The letter concerned several celebrity sexual misconduct lawsuits that boasted multimillion-dollar jury awards,” their lawsuit stated.
In a follow-up letter dated August 23, 2024, Roe again “offered to refrain from publicly filing her false and defamatory lawsuit…in exchange for a multimillion-dollar payment.”
Brooks claimed: ‘She threatened that if (Brooks) did not comply with this demand, he would face exposure of many millions of dollars ‘based on (his) net worth.’
Brooks and Yearwood appear at a Grammy tribute to Paul Simon at the Hollywood Pantages Theater in April 2022.
As the Recording Industry Association of America’s top solo artist in history, selling nearly 150 million albums, the Friends in Low Places singer has an estimated net worth of between $300 million and $350 million.
At times she has been the highest-paid celebrity on the planet. Between June 2017 and June 2018, he earned $45 million. In the same period in 2019, the year Roe accuses him of raping her, he earned $25 million.
Brooks’ country singer wife Trisha Yearwood’s own wealth brings their net worth as a couple to around $400 million.
Married for 21 years, Yearwood, 60, and Brooks have homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and Malibu, California.
Brooks broke her silence Thursday night, hours after issuing a strongly worded legal denial of rape and assault allegations leveled by the makeup artist whom she has known for more than 20 years.
Sharing an Instagram update after his show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Brooks wrote to fans that he “really needed this.”
Uploading a photo of the large crowd that turned out to cheer him on, he wrote: ‘If ever there was a night I really needed this, TONIGHT was it! Thank you for my life!!!!love, g.’
The plaintiff was originally hired to do Yearwood’s hair and makeup, and Brooks eventually recruited her to do it for him, he claims; Brooks and Yearwood photographed last month
For its part, Roe’s legal team accused Brooks of trying to “game” the legal system with last month’s preemptive strike.
“With a draft of Ms. Roe’s California sexual assault complaint in hand, Mr. Doe rushed to this court in an obvious attempt to further control and intimidate his sexual assault victim,” his response to his lawsuit filed at the federal level, seen by DailyMail.com. , read.
They claimed he did so by feigning interest in settlement talks to avoid the lawsuit they had yet to file.
In that lawsuit, of which DailyMail.com can reveal new details, Roe made multiple allegations of sexual assault and wrongdoing at the hands of Brooks.
She claimed that he “took advantage” of the financial difficulties she shared with him in 2019 and “took the opportunity to subject her to a side of Brooks that he hides from the public.”
According to Roe, that party “believes that he is entitled to sexual gratification whenever he desires it, and using an employee to obtain it is fair game.”
Roe accused Brooks of emerging naked from a shower on one occasion, ‘with an erection’ that he forced her to touch, grabbing her hand and telling her that he fantasized about the moment and wanted her to perform a sexual act on him.
She claimed things escalated in May 2019 when he asked her to travel with him to Los Angeles for a Grammy tribute to Sam Moore. She claimed he booked a one-bedroom hotel suite and refused to provide her with her own room.
Brooks is honored by the Kennedy Center in 2021
In her suite, she claimed that she, who is less than five feet tall and weighs 100 pounds, was subjected to a brutal rape by Brooks, who, at six feet tall and nearly 300 pounds, could easily physically overpower her.
She also claimed that he sent her explicit text messages and encouraged her to text him; who boasted of having ‘fucked multiple women in every corner of a hotel room’, ‘white, black, brown or whatever… on every surface’.
Brooks also repeatedly talked about having a threesome with Yearwood and Roe and repeatedly exposed himself to her and touched her body, including her breasts, according to the lawsuit.
Surprisingly, Roe believed that Yearwood “heard (his suggestion of a threesome) on at least one occasion,” and that his wife was present for a particularly lewd conversation in which Brooks talked about inventing a shampoo bottle that would function as a dildo.
Roe claimed that the conversation made her so uncomfortable that she did not want to join in, which infuriated Brooks so much that she “pounded her fists on the kitchen counter in such frustration that objects on the counter moved and she leaned over and spoke in a tone of voice. threatening”. “Good manners to Mrs. Roe.”
