A timeline of Jay Z and Beyoncé’s relationship drama: From age gaps to the Diddy scandal

It’s only Monday and yet it is already clear that this will be the worst week of PR that Beyoncé and Jay Z have had to face in a very long time. The previously untouchable married music moguls have been caught in the crossfire of the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegations, with Jay Z accused in a civil suit of having raped a 13-year-old girl at a Diddy party in 2000.

Jay Z, real name Shawn Carter, has denied the allegations. In the legal action, an anonymous victim claims that she was raped by Carter and Combs at VMAs afterparty in 2000. She claims that after arriving at the afterparty and being handed a glass of something that made her feel “woozy”. She then recalls lying down in a bedroom, where she claims Combs and Carter raped her while an unnamed female celebrity watched.

Carter vehemently denied the accusations via a post on social media, in which he wrote: “My lawyer received a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a ‘lawyer’ named Tony Buzbee. What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle.

Carter then addressed how the claims would affect him, Beyoncé and their three children, Blue Ivy (aged 12), Rumi and Sir (both aged seven). “My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.”

But this isn’t the first storm the Carters have weathered publicly. From debates over their age gap, when they first started dating, to a well-documented cheating scandal that rocked the world (and spawned a number one album). Here’s a timeline of the pair’s tumultuous relationship.