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14th Aug 2021

Nicki Minaj and husband sued by woman who accused him of attempted rape

Charlie Herbert

The woman claims she was offered a huge financial sum by the couple to withdraw her claims

Rapper Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty are being sued by a woman whom Petty was convicted of trying to rape in 1994, after she claimed the duo offered her half a million dollars to take back her claims.

The woman has filed a lawsuit claiming that the couple harassed her to try to take back her claims.

Petty was jailed for four and a half years in 1995 after he pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of the woman, who was just a teenager at the time.

Now 43, the woman alleges Minaj offered her $500,000 for her to withdraw her accusations, and even promised to fly the woman and her family out to Los Angeles if she could “help” her.

Petty was arrested last year after he failed to register as a sex offender, and it is claimed that an intermediary then gave Minaj the woman’s number. The Mirror reports that the rapper is then said to have called the woman to offer cash, while also offering to get her publicist to draft a statement withdrawing the rape claims.

The woman rejected all offers of cash and help.

In legal papers seen by the BBC, the woman told Minaj: “I need you to know woman to woman, that this happened.”

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According to the lawsuit the woman says “she cannot work due to severe depression, paranoia, constant moving, harassment and threats from the celebrity couple and their associates.”

The woman further claims that within days of her rejecting Minaj’s offers of money and ‘help,’ she and her family “suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits.”

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, says she is living in hiding as she fears retaliation.

The musician’s legal team has not yet responded to the accusations, according to US media.

Minaj and Petty began dating in 2018 and announced a year later that they were married. The couple have an 11-month-old son.