Joanie Faircloth — the woman who posted on various websites that Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager — is now admitting that she completely fabricated the story in an attempt “to get attention.”
Faircloth contacted Oberst’s lawyer and issued a notarized statement today in which she admitted that she had lied.
“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. 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’s accusations first appeared in the comments section of an unrelated post on xoJane, and then she elaborated on the story on Tumblr. The accusations were then picked up and disseminated by the mainstream media. However, as Jezebel reported, Faircloth had a long history of making contradictory statements online that suggest she is prone to inventing stories that she attempts to pass off as real.
Oberst filed a lawsuit against Faircloth in February, demanding that she recant her story, which he called “an insult to the millions of actual rape victims around the world.” For seven months, Faircloth was unresponsive to his team’s attempts to get in touch with her, but today has issued an apology.