American rapper 50 Cent has filed a lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend Daphne Joy, accusing her of defamation after she alleged he raped and physically abused her. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, stems from an Instagram post Joy shared in March, in which she made several accusations against the rapper.
According to 50 Cent’s lawyers, Joy posted the accusations because he was seeking custody of their 11-year-old son Sire. The custody battle began after Joy was named as one of Diddy’s “sex workers” in a lawsuit filed against the Bad Boy Records mogul.
In her post, Joy alleged that 50 Cent raped and abused her, and claimed she was tired of protecting his image for their son. She wrote, “I am tired of upholding and protecting an image to our son that you have never even earned,” Joy wrote. “Let’s put the real focus on your true evil actions of raping me and physically abusing me. You are no longer my oppressor and my God will handle you from this point on.
She added, “You have permanently damaged the last hope I had for you as a father to preserve our family with these last and final false claims made against me. You have broken our hearts for the last and final time.”
50 Cent’s lawsuit claims that Joy’s post earned over 22,000 likes and has subjected him to online harassment, damaging his business reputation and child custody case. He is seeking damages in excess of $1 million and a court order to force Joy to remove the post and withhold any other negative comments.
His lawyers, Reena Jain and Blank Rome, stated, “Despite being given ample opportunity to retract a false and malicious retaliatory accusation, Ms Narvaez has shamefully chosen to interfere with her 11-year-old son’s relationship with his loving father by falsely calling him a ‘rapist.'” They also alleged that Joy’s actions are motivated by her “entanglement and misguided loyalty” to Diddy, who they believe is “underwriting this attack.”
