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Musician FKA twigs (real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett) is suing actor Shia LaBeouf for allegedly subjecting her to physical, emotional and mental abuse during a romantic relationship.
In an interview with the New York Times, Barnett, 32, characterized his experience with LaBeouf as “the worst thing I’ve been through in my entire life” and said he wanted to raise awareness of “the tactics abusers use to control you and take away your agency ”.
In response to detailed allegations about his conduct, LaBeouf told the Times that “many of these allegations are not true,” but that he owed Barnett and Karolyn Pho, another woman whose claims are in the lawsuit, “the opportunity to air their claims. public statements and [for me to] accept responsibility for the things I have done.
He said: “I am not in a position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel. 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 am ashamed of that story and sorry for the injured. There’s nothing more I can say. “
The lawsuit states that in February 2019 Barnett was a passenger in a vehicle that LaBeouf was driving recklessly, and that she removed her seat belt and threatened to crash unless she said she loved him. The couple had taken a trip to the desert outside of Los Angeles, during which, according to Barnett, LaBeouf once woke her up in the middle of the night by suffocating her.
Barnett said that after begging to be let out, LaBeouf stopped at a gas station and retrieved her luggage. He allegedly followed her and assaulted her, throwing her against the car and yelling in her face.
Barnett said no one helped her and that a colleague later dismissed her allegations. She said she had not gone to the police at first because she was concerned that LaBeouf’s career would be harmed and later because she thought they would not take her seriously.
“I said to myself, ‘No one is ever going to believe me,'” she told the Times. “I am unconventional. And I am a person of color who is a woman. “
Hair stylist Karolyn Pho told the New York Times that LaBeouf had also abused her during the course of a romantic relationship. Some of her experiences also appear in Barnett’s lawsuit, including an allegation that he pinned her to a bed while drunk and butted her head, leaving her bleeding.
The lawsuit states that Barnett met LaBeouf in 2018 when she was cast in his film Honey Boy and that their relationship began after filming concluded. She and Pho claimed that LaBeouf did not like being talked to or looking at male waiters.
Barnett said LaBeouf harangued and criticized her when she enforced rules about how many times a day she should kiss and touch him, and that he isolated her from her peers in London. She said he had a gun by the bed and insisted that she sleep naked. She said she was afraid to use the bathroom at night in case he mistook her for an intruder and shot her. The lawsuit claims that LaBeouf knowingly infected Barnett with a sexually transmitted disease.
Barnett told the Times that escaping from LaBeouf became “difficult and dangerous.” In the spring of 2019, he stopped her from leaving, “violently grabbed” her, picked her up, locked her in a room and yelled at her.
“The whole time I was with him, he could have bought me a business plane ticket back to my four-story house in Hackney,” she said. “It brought me so low, below me, that the idea of quitting and having to work again seemed impossible.”
Barnett said he intended to donate any monetary damages to domestic violence charities. “It was actually very expensive and a lot of time and resources to get out there.”
In 2015, LaBeouf was filmed arguing with his then-girlfriend, actress Mia Goth, telling her, “This is the kind of thing that makes a person abusive.” He later told the strangers who had been filming him: “If I had stayed there, I would have killed her.”
He told the Times that he was committed to recovering from alcoholism and the effects of PTSD. “I will always regret the people who may have hurt along the way.”
Barnett released her second album as FKA twigs, Magdalene, in 2019.
