Drake has filed a lawsuit against a woman who he says falsely accused him of sexually assaulting and impregnating her during a one night stand and has allegedly tried to extort the rapper for millions of dollars. The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday at the Superior Court of California, accuses Layla Lace (who’s real name is Laquana Morris) of civil extortion, fraud, defamation, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In April 2017, Morris said on social media that Drake got her pregnant and ceased all communication with her. Morris had posted on Instagram what appeared to be text messages exchanged between her and the rapper, along with a photo of a lab printout of a pregnancy test order, E! News reports.
Days later, Morris appeared on “Shade 45,” a SiriusXM show, to confirm Drake had impregnated her, Rolling Stone reports. “I know who I sleep with unprotected, period. So it’s 100 percent sure. He knows it,” Morris said during the interview. She made no mention of the alleged sexual assault at the time.
On Tuesday, Drake filed the lawsuit against Morris. In the lawsuit, according to Rolling Stone, Drake admits to having had consensual sex with Morris at a Manchester, England hotel in February 2017, adding that “there is no credible evidence of pregnancy, nor any baby, which would have been born last fall.”
Drake claims that Morris turned their encounter into a “fantasy relationship.” The court documents state that “[Morris] went ballistic at Drake for sending her home instead of allowing her to continue on his tour,” after which the rapper had apologized to her.
During Drake’s 2017 European tour, Morris claimed she, of her own choice, booked a $1,600 flight to London after the rapper had to cancel a show due to illness. “If ima be there when it’s time to have fun, i should definitely be there when he’s sick as well,” Morris allegedly texted a mutual friend. The lawsuit claims Morris became irate when no one responded to her booking of the flight, ultimately canceling the flight.
It was ultimately after Drake ceased all communication with Morris that she reportedly made her public allegation about the pregnancy, E! News reports.
Drake says in the lawsuit that in May 2017, lawyers representing Morris reached out to his attorney and demanded money for Morris’ alleged baby. The lawsuit states that Drake, through his counsel, indicated that if the child was in fact his, he would support it, but due to various reasons, including the fact that he had used protection, he would therefore need proof and requested a paternity test. Drake claims that Morris refused.
Soon after, the lawsuit claims, Morris’ lawyers fabricated a story that Drake had raped her during their encounter, and had even filed a police report. The lawsuit claims that, while Morris told police she and Drake had consensual sex, she told her lawyers that “she was raped, forced to perform oral sex and falsely imprisoned in Drake’s hotel room.”
Drake’s lawsuit added that Manchester police cleared him of any allegations of sexual assault. However, Morris allegedly continued to demand money, posted their private messages on social media and threatened “to go public with salacious (and ever changing) false allegations of conduct that simply did not happen.”
“Enough is enough. With this action, Drake is refusing to allow Layla to get away with her malicious plot and scheme to extort millions of dollars from him by threatening to go public with salacious (and ever changing) false accusations of conduct that simply did not happen,” the lawsuit states. “It would have been easy for Drake to pay for silence. However, Drake does not want to take the easy way out. Layla and her attorneys underestimated Drake’s steadfast resolve not to pay hush money to avoid negative publicity arising from fabricated claims. He looks forward to holding Layla and those working in concert with her responsibly for he egregious misconduct.”
“Drake preferred that he would not have to further engage with Layla in any way,” the lawsuit continues. “She made that outcome impossible, however, with her behavior and he had no choice but to file this action to expose Layla for the opportunist that she is and prove his case in a court of law.”