JAY-Z has secured a legal victory in a long-running paternity dispute involving Lillie Coley, the godmother of Rymir Satterthwaite, who has claimed for years that the billionaire rap mogul is his biological father.
On January 13, 2026, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett denied Coley’s motion for reconsideration and ordered her to pay $119,235.45 in attorney’s fees to Carter’s legal team, according to court documents obtained by The Exclusive Press (EP). The judge ruled that Coley “shall take nothing” from Carter, the defendant, by reason of her complaint.
California’s anti-SLAPP statute, under Code of Civil Procedure Section 425.16(c)(1), is designed to protect individuals from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). The law deters lawsuits targeting people for exercising their free speech and petition rights. By allowing defendants to file a special motion to strike, the statute enables early dismissal of such cases, minimizing both the financial and emotional burden on the defendant.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit Coley filed on May 6, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In that suit, she accused the 56-year-old rapper of engaging in a decades-long scheme to preserve his public image while denying her alleged rights. Coley also claimed that the New Jersey Attorney General, where she previously filed cases, made “demonstrably and provably false” interpretations of past court rulings, which she said harmed her federal case, forced her into bankruptcy, and put her property at risk. The court in New Jersey ultimately dismissed lawsuit with prejudice, preventing her and from being refiled. In 2022, a New Jersey judge barred both Coley and Satterthwaite from filing additional lawsuits in that state without prior court approval, citing repeated failed attempts to relitigate the same claims. This led her to pursue the matter in California, which subsequently cleared the path for Carter’s legal team to seek sanctions.
Carter’s attorneys argued that the repeated lawsuits amounted to a prolonged campaign of harassment, a position the judge accepted. The ruling effectively closes the door on further court filings related to the dispute.
Satterthwaite, now in his early 30s, has alleged that the Brooklyn rapper had a relationship with his late mother, Wanda, in the 1990s. Over the years, multiple paternity lawsuits have been filed, all of which were dismissed.
In a 2015 affidavit to the Daily Mail, Satterthwaite said his mother claimed she met JAY-Z, then known as “Rock,” in Philadelphia through a friend. She alleged they had protected sex, but the protection failed when she was 16 and Carter was 22. These claims have never been proven in court.
Throughout the years of litigation, the “Hard Knock Life” rapper has consistently denied the paternity claims and successfully blocked efforts to compel DNA testing. The latest ruling represents one of the strongest legal conclusions yet in Carter’s favor, bringing an end to a dispute that has spanned decades.
