FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf For Alleged Sexual Battery

Melodie Jeng/Getty Images

FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf For Alleged Sexual Battery

Melodie Jeng/Getty Images

FKA Twigs is suing her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress. The New York Times reports that the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses the actor of “relentless” physical and emotional abuse. In one alleged incident, he removed his seatbelt and threatened to crash their car unless she professed her love for him; when she begged him to let her out, he pulled over at a gas station, threw her against the vehicle, screamed in her face, and forced her to get back in.

FKA Twigs met LaBeouf in 2018 when she was cast in his film Honey Boy, and they dated for nearly a year. After earning her trust with “over-the-top displays of affection,” LaBeouf began to exhibit controlling behavior. According to the suit, he didn’t like it if she spoke to or looked at other men, including waiters; he had rules about how many times a day she had to kiss and touch him; he didn’t let her wear clothing to bed; he turned small disagreements into all-night fights; and he kept a loaded firearm by the bed, frightening her.

FKA Twigs says that LaBeouf would often squeeze or grab her to the point of bruising, once waking her up in the middle of the night by choking her. At one point, when she packed her belongings and attempted to leave, LaBeouf showed up unannounced, “violently grabbed” her, picked her up, locked her in another room, and yelled at her, according to a sworn statement from Twigs’ housekeeper, who witnessed the incident. Twigs also claims that LaBeouf knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.

“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” FKA Twigs said in an interview. “What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life. I don’t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that’s the thing. It can happen to anybody.” She says she plans to donate a significant portion of any monetary damages to domestic violence charities.

Shia LaBeouf addressed the allegations in several emails to The New York Times. “I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel,” he wrote. “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”

LaBeouf said that “many of these allegations are not true” but that he owed Twigs and Karolyn Pho, another ex-girlfriend contacted by The Times, “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.” He added that he is “a sober member of a 12-step program” and is currently in therapy: “I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism, but I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way.”

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