The woman who accused Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst of sexually assaulting her when she was 16 years old has offered a public apology for her claims, admitting she fabricated the entire story.
In the statement, via Buzzfeed, Joanie Faircloth asks for forgiveness for her fabricated accusations, explaining that she was “going through a difficult period” in her life. Faircloth first made the rape claims in the comments of an XOJane article and in February this year Oberst filed a libel lawsuit against her, calling her accusations “absolutely, unequivocally false.”
“The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false,” reads Faircloth’s statement. “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.”
Faircloth had initially claimed that Oberst physically and sexually assaulted her after being introduced at one of his concerts. In June this year Conor Oberst was forced to deny claims that his record label, Nonesuch Records, had dropped him following the allegations of rape.
In a statement accompanying Faircloth’s apology and retraction, Oberst’s publicist said “Ms. Faircloth had no physical contact with Mr Oberst at the Durham, NC show she claimed was the location of the alleged sexual assault.”
According to Buzzfeed, until she released this apology Faircloth had not responded to Oberst’s lawyers’ attempts to contact her. Oberst himself has not yet responded to the apology and it’s unclear how his libel suit against Faircloth will move forward.
