When did Jay-Z and Beyonce get together? Timeline explored as singer comes under fire, faces calls for divorce amid civil lawsuit

Beyonce, who tied the knot with Jay-Z in 2008, is facing calls for divorce from netizens. The online surge comes after the Roc Nation founder was accused of allegedly r*ping a 13-year-old girl in a 2000 afterparty.

The accuser originally filed the lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs in October, alleging the rapper had assaulted her at an MTV-VMAs afterparty.

She amended the filing on Sunday to add Jay-Z, whose birth name is Shawn Carter, to the lawsuit, accusing him of the same crime.

Jay-Z is accused of allegedly r*ping a 13-year-old girl in 2000. (Image via X/Pop Base)

The woman claimed she went to a nearby bedroom at the party as she was feeling dizzy after drinking. She continued Carter was the first one to allegedly r*pe her, followed by Diddy. The accuser allegedly escaped the scene after hitting the Bad Boy Records founder.

As news of the allegation against Carter circulated online, he received criticism from netizens and some of Beyonce's fans. They expressed concerns over the Diva hitmaker suffering the greater brunt of the ordeal.

"beyoncè better divorce jay z wtf", wrote one X user.

"Beyoncé is about to catch more heat for this than Jay z himself smh", worried another.

"only thing i’m gonna say about beyonce is, that divorce should’ve been filed years ago", one more chimed in.

Netizens further condemned Jay-Z's response to the lawsuit through a statement from Roc Nation on X. The Roc Nation founder conveyed a lengthy criticism of the allegations, calling them "heinous".

He accused the alleged victim's lawyer Tony Buzbee of blackmailing him through the civil suit, adding he received a "demand letter".

Carter called Tony Buzbee a "fraud" and expressed his urge to "expose" him "in a VERY public fashion". The tweet was soon flooded with commenters slamming the rapper.

"This statement makes me believe the victim even more!", commented one X user.

"Oh you're guilty", wrote one person.

"So all these words and you can't say "I didn't touch any child"", said another.

"how long have you been sitting on this statement? this is similar to how Diddy’s cases began", asked one person.

"That message Jay Z posted was condescending, narcisstic and used victim blaming and gaslighting rhetoric and he never not ONCE said he didn’t do it. I hope he goes down BAD", one X user tweeted.

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Looking at Jay-Z and Beyonce's relationship timeline in the wake of latest allegations

Beyonce met Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z around 1999 when she was 18. The two began as friends and after a year and a half, romance started brewing between them while she was 19.

Referring to a Vanity Fair cover from November 2001, which featured the couple, Carter later told the outlet they were still in the early stage of dating at the time.

However, neither confirmed their relationship at the time. After two more years of collaborations and romance speculations, Beyonce and Carter stepped out on the MTV VMAs red carpet as a couple in 2004.

The pair got married in a secret ceremony on April 4, 2008, which Jay-Z confirmed in an August 2008 interview with Vibe Magazine.

Beyonce revealed she was expecting a baby with the rapper in August 2011. Their daughter Blue Ivy was born in January of the following year.

However, in her HBO documentary Life Is But a Dream released in February 2013, Beyonce revealed that prior to conceiving Blue Ivy, she had a miscarriage.

In February 2017, the pair announced they were expecting again and in June, Beyonce and Jay-Z welcomed their twins Rumi and Sir.

As rumors of infidelity plagued Carter and Beyonce's marriage, the rapper admitted to the deed in a 2017 interview with The New York Times:

"The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone's face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself. So, you know, most people don't want to do that. You don't want to look inside yourself. And so you walk away."

Carter spoke about going to therapy and discussed how the pair worked through the issues to save their marriage.

However, in the wake of the civil lawsuit amendment filed on Sunday, December 8, many highlighted how Beyonce and Jay-Z supposedly began dating when she was 19 and the two had a 12-year age gap.

Several netizens accused the rapper of grooming Beyonce and further stressed that the singer should have filed for divorce long back.