What led to the dismissal of Jay-Z's paternity case after 10 years of claims? Case explained

Jay-Z’s paternity case was dismissed with prejudice by a California judge after a ten-year legal battle, as reported by Page Six.

This means that Rymir Satterthwaite can no longer file the same paternity suit again or demand paternity tests from the record executive. Despite multiple lawsuits filed against Jay-Z, also known as Shawn Carter, he has repeatedly denied the allegations. His legal team described the allegations as harassment and argued that the claims made by his alleged son were baseless.

The lawsuit filed by Satterthwaite, who claimed to be the music artist’s biological son, alleges that the rapper impregnated his late mother, Wanda Satterthwaite, in the ‘90s when she was around sixteen.

Before the dismissal, Satterthwaite shared on his Instagram his decision to take back his case.

Here is what we know about it.

Rymir Satterthwaite affirms he has not ended his fight against Jay-Z

In a video message shared on his Instagram in July 2025, Rymir Satterthwaite confirmed that although he has decided to withdraw his lawsuit against Jay-Z, he has not ended his fight. He opened about how judges and high-profile celebrities have resources to influence the legal process and dismiss the charges.

Satterthwaite said:

“It’s for a reason, y’all. It’s not because I’m stopping or am not going to refile it. [There’s] just a lot going on behind closed doors. But that’s only one case that we withdrew. I have not stopped my fight. I did withdraw my case. I have not stopped my fight. We got to step back and play chess, not checkers.”

Previously, Jay-Z claimed that Satterthwaite was slapped with an injunction in 2022. The injunction, which was issued by a New Jersey judge, prohibited Satterthwaite and his caregiver from filing any new paternity lawsuits.

US Weekly went through the 2022 case of injunction filed by the 99 Problems rapper, which ordered Satterthwaite and his family members to stop filing new suits.

In response to the rapper’s claims of injunction, Satterthwaite claimed that he is not aware of any such injunction and had never been served with it.

He told US Weekly when contacted about the injunction:

“This injunction Order I am not aware of and have never been served. But all the Orders from NJ regarding Judges are in the Appeals Court since they were derived from fraud to block our due process which showed [Jay-Z’s] wrong doing of allegations of perjury.”

Satterthwaite has filed multiple lawsuits against Jay-Z in various states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But reportedly many of these have been blocked by dismissed by injunctions.

Despite the setbacks, Satterthwaite continued to pursue the claims and filed a legal lawsuit, alleging the use of conspiracies to obstruct his case.

According to a report in Radar Online and The Daily Mail, Satterthwaite and his legal guardian and godmother, Lillie Collie, have been fighting the case since 2011. They have reportedly tried to compel the musician to take a paternity test, which the rapper allegedly lied to avoid in 2015, after which the matter became public.

Jay-Z is no stranger to a legal case. A prior lawsuit involved an anonymous woman who filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z and Diddy (who also goes by Sean Diddy Combs). She claimed that they se*ually assaulted her when she was thirteen years old, following the award show after-party at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. She withdrew the lawsuit against both artists in February 2025.

In March 2025, as per The Guardian, Jay-Z filed a defamation lawsuit against the woman, claiming that the accusations were false and malicious and aimed to damage his reputation.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback