Conor Oberst is probably breathing a sigh of relief right now.
The Bright Eyes frontman has been exonerated from the rape accusations that have plagued him for the past several months.
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Joan Elizabeth Harris, aka Joanie Faircloth, has withdrawn her accusations, admitting that her claims against the singer are “100 percent false” in a statement issued Monday.
Harris further admitted that she made up the claims “to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness.
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“I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family and his fans for writing such awful things about him,” Harris added. “I realize that my actions were wrong and that could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize.”
The accusations first surfaced early this year in the comments section of an article published on XOJane by a woman who’d had an abusive relationship with a musician, Spin reports.
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“I was raped by a ‘rock star’ myself. I was 16 years old, he was in his 20s,” the comment read. “This guy is the poster boy for what was known as ’emo.’”
Oberst was later called out by name in a subsequent comment in which Harris claimed that Oberst’s brother was her English teacher and had introduced her to the musician for her 16th birthday.
The musician’s team steadfastly denied the claims at the time, calling them “absolutely, unequivocally false.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.