FKA twigs (L) and Shia LaBeouf. (Getty)
FKA twigs is suing her former boyfriend Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and emotional distress after he, she claimed in a lawsuit, knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
Their relationship was rumbled by “relentless abuse”, the musician claimed in a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Twigs, real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, dated the Transformers cinematic series actor for just short of a year before splitting up May 2019. Sources at the time claimed they separated due to work scheduling conflicts.
But in an explosive report by The New York Times, Twigs alleged that LaBeouf physically and emotionally abused her. He would grab her to the point of bruising, she alleged, and also slept with a loaded gun – she feared she would be shot if mistaken for an intruder while using the restroom.
LaBeouf sought to dismiss the allegations, saying “many are not true”.
A couple. A car ride in a desert. A lawsuit claiming Shia LaBeouf beat and bruised FKA twigs.
At the crux of what will no doubt unfold into a tumultuous tort case, a reckless drive along a dusty Los Angeles road. One which she alleged ended with him removing his seatbelt and threatening to crash unless she professed her love.
The ride was riddled with similar combative incidents, the suit says, with LaBeouf once allegedly waking up in the middle of the night and choking her.
He even at one point during the trip, which took place just after Valentine’s Day in 2019, stopped at a gas station. Grabbing her bags from the trunk, he reportedly threw her against the vehicle, screamed in her face before forcing her back inside.
Talking to the newspaper, she explained that her aims in going public with the allegations are to “raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency”, she said.
Barnett added in the suit that she during the time of their relationship pondered about going to the police. She backtracked once, fearing the impact it would have on LaBeouf’s career.
The second she doubted her claims would even be taken seriously by authorities.
Another of LaBeouf’s exes, stylist Karolyn Pho, also claimed in the suit that the star drunkenly head-butted her while in bed to the point that she bled. “So much goes into breaking down a man or woman to make them OK with a certain kind of treatment,” Pho said.
The singer said she would donate a significant portion of any damages she receives from litigation to domestic-violence charities.
Across several emails to The New York Times, LaBeouf rebuffed the spikier claims of his alleged track record of turbulent abuse but acknowledged his troubled history with substances.
“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behaviour made them feel,” LaBeouf said in one email.
“I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalisations. 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.”
He added in another email that “many of these allegations are not true”, and stressed that he owed women “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”
LaBeouf noted he has been “a sober member of a 12-step program.
“I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism,” he wrote, “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.”