Garth Brooks plans to flee America for his ancestral homeland of Ireland in a desperate bid to escape the backlash from his former hairstylist's shocking sex abuse lawsuit, sources told RadarOnline.com.
The country kingpin, 62, recently confessed that his songbird wife, 60-year-old Trisha Yearwood, is hankering for a house on the Emerald Isle.
But a pal said that “The Dance” singer's sudden desire to move has little to do with his spouse of nearly two decades — and everything to do with his ex-snipper's sordid accusations, which paint him as a sex fiend who made her life a living hell.
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"Trisha didn't just suddenly wake up and realize she wanted a home in Ireland. She's wanted this for a while," according to the source.
"It's Garth who is now more agreeable to the idea and maybe even pushing for it. He feels like he hasn't had a moment's peace since the lawsuit dropped."
Another source said the glum Grammy winner "knows he's innocent" — but is "embarrassed as all hell" and "wondering if he'll ever be able to hold his head up high again."
The insider added Brooks also wants to pull up stakes because he's worried about the potential for a criminal investigation as his accuser claimed he'd sexually assaulted her in 2019 in a hotel room in L.A. — a city without a statute of limitations оп гаре.
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The source believes an overseas refuge could give Brooks "peace of mind", explaining: "He's a national hero in Ireland, and he's betting that Ireland, which has an extradition treaty with the U.S., would never turn him over to the feds."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Brooks – who currently resides in Tennessee – was slapped with a civil action in October from the stylist, who has accused him of predatory behavior.
The woman, whose identity has been withheld, claimed Brooks repeatedly groped her, exposed himself, forced her hands onto his penis, sent explicit texts, and regularly gabbed about sex and shared his lurid fantasies.
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Now, the insider confides that the rattled Nashville legend "thinks people are looking at him and wondering if he's capable of such horrors."
Brooks tried to head off his accuser's lawsuit by filing his own against her, which vehemently denies the allegations and insists he was the victim of an attempted extortion plot, sources added.
He also wants the L.A. Superior Court judge to toss out her lawsuit because he has yet to be properly served and that the case should be moved to federal court because neither he nor the alleged victim lives in California.
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"Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money," grumbled Garth.
"In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of ugly acts no human should ever do to another."