Dec. 12 (UPI) — Singer FKA Twigs accused actor Shia LaBeouf of sexual battery, assault and inflection of emotional distress during their nearly one-year romantic relationship in a lawsuit she filed Friday in California.
The suit said the couple met in 2018 while filming Honey Boy, an autobiographical movie written by LaBeouf in which both acted. FKA Twigs said that while the relationship began with a “honeymoon phase,” LaBeouf became demanding of her attention and gradually worked to separate her from her friends and support system in London.
He also became violent and knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, she said.
“For too long, LaBeouf has sought to excuse his reprehensible actions as the eccentricities of a free-thinking ‘artist,'” the lawsuit says. “Even though his history of violent behavior was well-documented, many in the media have treated LaBeouf as a harmless figure of fun, which has helped enable him to perpetuate his cycle of abuse of women over the years. There is nothing funny about the exploitation of and battering of women.”
In one instance detailed in the lawsuit, FKA Twigs said she asked LaBeouf to pull over his vehicle because he was driving too fast and recklessly. She said he stopped at a gas station, and when she attempted to take her bags from the trunk, he threw her against the vehicle and began screaming in her face.
Another former girlfriend of LaBeouf’s added her voice to the lawsuit, saying she, too, was assaulted during their relationship. Karolyn Pho said once, while drunk, he held her down on a bed and head-butted her hard enough to make her bleed.
LaBeouf responded to the allegations, telling The New York Times that many of the allegations made in the lawsuit are untrue. He said he’s now involved in a sober treatment program.
“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel,” he told the Times. “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.”
The lawsuit says LaBeouf made it difficult for FKA Twigs to leave him, encouraging her to live with him in California and separating her from her friends in her home of London. The singer said she once tried to leave him, but he locked her in a room and screamed at her.
FKA Twigs said she plans to donate a portion of any monetary damages she receives to organizations devoted to stopping domestic violence.
“This action has been brought not for personal gain, but to set the record straight, and to help ensure that no more women must undergo the abuse that Shia LaBeouf has inflicted on his prior romantic partners,” the lawsuit says. “The days in which LaBeouf can mistreat and harm women with impunity are over.”
LaBeouf has had a history of public, violent behavior. In 2018, police arrested him in Georgia on charges of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Body camera footage of the incident showed him making racial remarks to one of the officers.
He was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a fine and attend therapy.
