Country music star Garth Brooks shared a photo holding hands with his wife just days before he was accused of sexual assault.
Brooks, 62, posted the photo on Instagram earlier this week to commemorate the work he and Trisha Yearwood, 60, did with Habitat for Humanity, a housing charity. The music star and his wife hosted an event to celebrate the 40th year of the charity’s Carter Work Project, an annual home-building blitz named after former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
“We show up to do the work, but what we all leave with is SO much more,” Brooks wrote in the Instagram post. “Kicking off the build for @habitatforhumanity Carter Work project 2024.”
Brooks then made another post wishing Carter a happy 100th birthday.
“To the man with the longest legacy of giving we have ever known, Happy 100th Birthday Mr. President Carter,” he wrote. “Your work has impacted the world and your heart continues to change lives, ours included.”
Brooks and Yearwood have been married since 2005, having gotten engaged that year after he proposed on stage.
Brooks married his first wife, songwriter Sandy Mahl, in 1986. The couple had three daughters before filing for divorce in 2000. Yearwood was married twice before she tied the knot with Brooks.
On Thursday, October 3, Brooks was named in a lawsuit accusing him of rape in 2019. He has denied these claims.
He is being sued by a woman identified only as “Jane Roe,” who says she was first hired to do hair and makeup for Yearwood in 1999. She said she began working for Brooks directly in 2017.
The complaint, which was filed in California, alleges that Brooks raped the woman in a hotel suite during a work trip. CNN was first to report the lawsuit.
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She said that in May 2019, she traveled with Brooks to Los Angeles on his private jet. She then said that Brooks raped her, and that on subsequent occasions he physically groped her and made “repeated remarks” about “having a threesome” with his wife.
“Brooks’ rape of Ms. Roe was painful and traumatic. Having no regard for her wellbeing and intent on his own sexual gratification at the expense of Ms. Roe’s physical, mental and emotional trauma, at some point during the nightmare, Brooks even held her small body upside down [and attacked],” the lawsuit read.
In addition to the allegation of rape, Brooks is accused in the lawsuit of repeatedly exposing his genitals to the woman, sharing sexual fantasies with her and sending her sexually explicit text messages.
The suit asked for an unspecified amount of money.
The country singer said that he has been “hassled to no end with threats, lies and tragic tales” because of this lawsuit.
“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 said in a statement to CNN. “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.”
Brooks previously denied his accuser’s claims and tried to prevent her from voicing them publicly through a complaint he filed as a “John Doe.”
In that complaint, he claimed that the woman had sent him a “confidential” demand letter alleging sexual misconduct after he had declined her request for “salaried employment and medical benefits.”
“Defendant’s allegations are not true,” Brooks’ previous lawsuit states. “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.”
The Independent has contacted Yearwood for comment.