A woman who accused Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst of rape now says her accusations are “100% false.”
On Monday, Joanie Faircloth, who accused Oberst of raping her after a 2003 concert in North Carolina in the comments section of an xoJane essay last December, recanted her statements in a public apology, Pitchfork reports.
“The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false. I made up those lies about him to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness,” Faircloth’s statement read.
“I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family, and his fans for writing such awful things about him. I realize that my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize. I’m truly sorry for all the pain that I caused,” she said.
Oberst, 34, sued Faircloth for libel in February. In the $1.2 million suit, Oberst called Faircloth “a pathological liar with a well-documented history of spinning tales and fabricating sexually themed stories about others to benefit herself.”
Faircloth failed to appear for any hearings related to the case.