A long-standing paternity lawsuit filed against American rap icon Jay-Z has been officially dismissed by a California court, effectively bringing an end to the years-long legal battle.
The United States District Court, Central District of California, dismissed the case “with prejudice” — a legal term that permanently bars the plaintiff from filing the same claim in the future.
“The Court has read and considered the motion and concluded that it is suitable for decision without oral argument,” the judge’s order stated.
The suit was filed by Lillie Coley, who claimed to be the godmother and legal guardian of Rymir Satterthwaite, a man in his early 30s who alleged that Jay-Z fathered him in the mid-1990s with a woman named Wanda Satterthwaite (now deceased).
Coley told the court that Wanda had spent nearly two decades trying to establish Jay-Z’s paternity through courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but was unsuccessful before her death in 2019.
Born in July 1993, Satterthwaite was confirmed not to be the child of Wanda’s then-boyfriend, Robert Graves, after a 2010 paternity test ruled him out.
In a December 2023 interview with the Daily Mail, Satterthwaite said his only desire was for Jay-Z to take a paternity test, insisting,
“I really want to resolve this and get this matter done. I don’t want any money. I just want the truth.”
Jay-Z’s legal team, however, has consistently denied the allegations, describing the case as part of a “decades-long campaign of harassment.”
With the latest dismissal, the matter is now legally concluded, marking the end of one of the most persistent celebrity paternity disputes in recent years.
