Kesha & Dr. Luke Settle Defamation Lawsuit Over Her 2014 Rape Accusation

22 June, 2023

Kesha and Dr. Luke have reached a settlement to end his long-running lawsuit accusing the pop star of defaming him by accusing him of rape, just a week after a New York court issued a key ruling that would have made it harder for Dr. Luke to win the case.

Reached just weeks before the case had been set to go to trial, the agreement will resolve nearly a decade of litigation between the two former creative partners. The producer claimed Kesha legally defamed him in 2014 when she made a “false and shocking” allegation: that he allegedly drugged and raped her after a 2005 party.

In a joint press release on social media featuring statements from both sides, Kesha said that “only god knows what happened that night.”

“As I have always said, I cannot recount everything that happened,” the star wrote. “I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”

In his own statement, Dr. Luke said he was “absolutely certain that nothing happened” that night in 2005: “I never drugged or assaulted her and would never do that to anyone. For the sake of my family, I have vigorously fought to clear my name for nearly 10 years. It is time for me to put this difficult matter behind me and move on with my life. I wish Kesha well.”

The abrupt settlement came just 10 days after New York’s top appeals court handed a key victory to Kesha in the case. The court ruled that Dr. Luke was a “public figure,” a finding that would make his case far harder to prove; it also said that Kesha could recoup her legal bills if she ultimately won.

Dr. Luke (full name Lukasz Gottwald) filed his lawsuit against Kesha (full name Kesha Rose Sebert) in 2014, claiming she made her “lurid” and false rape allegations as part of a scheme designed to “extort Gottwald into releasing Kesha from the exclusive recording agreement.”

“This type of malicious, destructive and vengeful conduct serves no legitimate purpose and should not be countenanced,” his lawyers wrote in their accusations.

Kesha long denied those allegations, arguing that the defamation case was an effort to silence the voice of a victim. She filed her own lawsuit against him in California and counter-claims in the New York case, alleging he had assaulted and harassed her. But those claims were eventually largely dismissed or dropped.

The pair spent years in bitter litigation over Dr. Luke’s defamation claims, with numerous procedural delays and appeals slowing down the process. But after more than eight years of litigation, a trial in Dr. Luke’s lawsuit had finally been scheduled to start on July 19.

Beyond Thursday’s statements, no details about the settlement were immediately released by the parties or made available in public court records.

Read Kesha and Dr. Luke’s statements below: