The young woman who previously claimed that she had been raped by ‘Bright Eyes’ front-man Conor Oberst when she was 16, has now come clean to reveal her accusations were “100 percent false”. Joanie Faircloth, who accused Oberst of sexually assaulting her in the comments of an XOJane article in December 2013, released a notarized statement today (available to read via Buzzfeed) in which she retracted her allegations and openly apologized to Oberst for the harm to his reputation.
“The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100 percent 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. 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.”
In February 2014; in response to the allegations, Oberst filed a libel lawsuit against Ms. Faircloth and stated that her claims were “absolutely, unequivocally false,” upon which he requested that Faircloth retract and come clean on her accusations.
A representative for Oberst, who is currently touring in Europe, said that the singer was not immediately available for any comment.
