The three students were interrogated, humiliated and scolded by family, friends and coworkers and will 'forever be associated with the alleged rape'

It claims the magazine and Erdely created a 'simple and direct way to match the alleged attackers with the Plaintiffs'

The charges were false and defamatory, they say

The article describes 'a gruesome and barbarous gang rape of a UVA freshman' say the UVA graduates

They are also suing the writer of the article, Sabrina Rubin Erdely

Three fraternity brothers implicated in Rolling Stone’s UVA Rape story are suing the magazine for defamation, claiming that their links to the now discredited story of the supposedly sexually violent frat house initiation ritual has had ‘a devastating effect’ on their lives,’ Daily Mail Online can exclusively reveal.

George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler were not named in the article but in their lawsuit, filed Wednesday, each states that the ‘vivid details’ published in the article which has since been retracted, made them clearly identifiable, leading to ‘emotional turmoil’ and leaving them ‘unable to focus at work and in school.’

The article ‘A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA,’ written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, garnered worldwide attention when it was published on November 19 2014, with the online story alone attracting 2.7million views.

George Elias (left) and Stephen Hadford were not named in the article but in their lawsuit, filed Wednesday, each states that the ‘vivid details’ published in the article which has since been retracted, made them clearly identifiable, leading to ‘emotional turmoil’ and leaving them ‘unable to focus at work and in school’

Elias is one of the three students were interrogated, humiliated and scolded by family, friends and coworkers

The Rolling Stone article described the ‘gruesome and barbarous,’ gang rape of a UVA freshman ‘Jackie’ when she allegedly attended a party at wealthy frat house, Phi Kappa Psi (above)

It described the ‘gruesome and barbarous,’ gang rape of a UVA freshman ‘Jackie’ when she allegedly attended a party at wealthy frat house, Phi Kappa Psi.

Erdely reported Jackie’s testimony that she was invited to a party by a brother known as ‘Drew.’ She related Jackie’s story of being ‘led upstairs to a pitch-black room, where she bumped into someone and screamed.’ A man then told Jackie to shut-up and threw her through a glass table.

The violent scenes that followed culminated in a brutal, multiple sexual assault that lasted three hours and was, Erdely reported, ‘one of Phi Kappa Psi’s initiation rituals.’

The details have since been discredited and wild discrepancies in Jackie’s account highlighted.

Phi Kappa Psi did not even host a party on the night of Jackie’s alleged attack.

But, according to the three fraternity brothers now suing Rolling Stone, Sabrina Erdely and Wenner Media LLC for a sum in excess of $75,000 the damage had already been done.

The lawsuit seen by Daily Mail Online states, ‘George Elias IV lived in the fraternity house in the first room at the top of the first flight of stairs at the time the alleged crime took place.’

It continues, ‘Based on the vivid details described in the Rolling Stone article, this room location was the most likely scene of the alleged crime.’

Jann Wenner, the owner of Rolling Stone magazine and head of Wenner Media and writer Sabrina Erdely have been named in the lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages

On the article’s publication, the suit states, ‘family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers and reporters easily matched Plaintiff as one of the alleged attackers and, among other things, interrogated him, humiliated him and scolded him.’

Both Hadford and Fowler, it states, suffered ‘similar attacks.

The suit presents all three as upstanding students, and claims that the fraternity of which they were once proud members has since been ‘vilified, vandalized and ultimately suspended on campus since Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s Rolling Stone article went online.’

It insists that Phi Kappa Psi ‘does not participate in rush and does not have pledges in the fall semester.’

Moreover, ‘no ritualized sexual assault is part of [its] pledging or initiating process.’

In the weeks that followed publication as the veracity of the article and ‘Jackie’s’ crumbled under intense scrutiny forcing managing editor, Will Dana to issue a public apology on Rolling Stone’s website stating that, ‘in the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.’

On April 5 2015 the magazine officially retracted ‘A Rape on Campus’ and Dana issued an apology ,’to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students'

The Charlottesville Police Department conducted a formal investigation of the allegations in the article and published its findings on March 23, 2015. It noted, ‘Having exhausted all investigative leads, our investigation concludes that there is no substantive basis to support the account alleged in the Rolling Stone article.’

On April 5 2015 the magazine officially retracted ‘A Rape on Campus’ and Dana issued an apology ,’to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students.’

Prior to the retraction Dana had tweeted, ‘I can’t explain the discrepancies between Jackie’s account and the counter statements by Phi Psi,’ and that ‘the fact that there is a story that appears in Rolling Stone in which I don’t have complete confidence is deeply unsettling to me.’