FKA Twigs and Shia LaBeouf's Legal Battle: What We Know

Four years after FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf for alleged physical and sexual abuse, the case will finally go to trial this fall. Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, and LaBeouf began dating after meeting on the set of LaBeouf's semi-autobiographical film Darling, my boy in 2018 and broke up nine months later. In December 2020, Barnett filed a lawsuit accusing LaBeouf of “relentless abuse” ranging from sexual assault to physical assault and infliction of emotional distress. “What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” she told The New York Times. Times in an interview after the lawsuit was filed, which included allegations of abuse by another of LaBeouf's exes.

After the lawsuit was filed, LaBeouf offered a convoluted response. “I have no excuses for my drinking or aggression, only rationalizations,” the actor wrote in a statement emailed to the American news agency. Times In 2020, he said, “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 this history and sorry to those I have hurt.” Shortly after, he reversed course through his legal team, denying “generally and specifically, each and every allegation” in Barnett’s lawsuit.

As the Oct. 14 trial date approaches, LaBeouf’s team is seeking to obtain Barnett’s private medical and financial records in an attempt to rebut her claims of emotional distress. Barnett “has alleged severe emotional distress, but she has thrived emotionally and physically while working on numerous projects and earning millions,” the filing states in June. “Contrary to what she alleges, she appears to have increased her fame in the years since her relationship with Shia.” Barnett’s team, for its part, has decried the efforts as an “invasion of privacy.”

Below is everything we know so far.

In his 2020 lawsuit, Barnett said LaBeouf's “relentless abuse” began with verbal harassment and escalated to physical violence. Shortly after the two ended their jobs, Darling, my boy, Barnett said LaBeouf convinced her to move in with him and gained her trust. Things quickly escalated. According to the complaint, LaBeouf belittled and berated Barnett for “the slightest perceived insult” and subjected her to a “continuous stream of verbal and mental abuse,” from exploding in anger over her kissing men on the cheek in music videos and being polite to male waiters to raging at her for hours over disagreements over artistic taste. According to the complaint, LaBeouf would count the number of kisses Barnett gave him in a day and punish her if she didn’t reach a certain number. Barnett claims LaBeouf had guns throughout the house, including a charge next to the bed; in a “constant state of fear,” Barnett said, she was afraid to wake up and go to the bathroom at night in case LaBeouf mistook her for an intruder. She also alleged that he forced her to sleep naked and asked her to join him in watching documentaries about murdered women.

Barnett said LaBeouf’s abuse turned physical on multiple occasions, leaving her with numerous injuries. One particularly egregious instance allegedly took place during a drive from the desert to Los Angeles in 2019. Barnett said LaBeouf removed her seatbelt, drove recklessly, and threatened to crash her if she didn’t confess her love for him. At a gas station, Barnett said she begged to be let out, but LaBeouf followed her as she took her bags out of the trunk before throwing her into the car and strangling her, eventually forcing her back inside. She also accused LaBeouf of not disclosing that he had been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease years earlier and that he knowingly gave it to her.

Karolyn Pho, a stylist and LaBeouf's ex-husband, also shared her own story of physical abuse at the hands of the actor, who allegedly once threw her on a bed while drunk and head-butted her until she bled. Pho said LaBeouf tried to stop the two women to form an alliance by sending him a falsely derogatory email about Barnett, who said in the complaint that she intended to “donate a significant portion” of the damages she received to domestic violence charities.

Shortly after Barnett filed his lawsuit, LaBeouf was dropped by his talent agency, CAA, and replaced by Harry Styles in Olivia Wilde's film. Don't worry, honey. Denying rumours that he had been fired, he said Variety he had stopped during rehearsals, and a source said People The actor was on hiatus while he continued his hospital treatment. Meanwhile, in statements emailed to the New York TimesLaBeouf said most of the allegations made against him by the two women were “false,” while stressing that he owed them “the opportunity to come forward and accept responsibility for what I did.” LaBeouf — who had multiple arrests for assault and disorderly conduct prior to the trial, charges that were eventually dropped — told the newspaper that he was committed to recovering from his PTSD and alcoholism and that he would “always regret the people I may have hurt along the way.”

His lawyers took a different approach: in a legal response to the complaint, obtained by PeopleThey denied “generally and specifically, each and every allegation” made by Barnett and Pho. LaBeouf’s team also denied that Barnett — who said in her complaint that she plans to donate a substantial portion of her damages to domestic violence charities — suffered any injuries or losses at the hands of their client and further denied that she is “entitled to any relief or damages of any kind.” LaBeouf’s attorneys asked the judge to dismiss Barnett’s sexual assault claims and order her to pay LaBeouf his legal fees and “such other relief as the court deems just and proper.”

In August 2022, LaBeouf alluded to Barnett's lawsuit against Jon Bernthal The real ones “I hurt this woman,” said LaBeouf, who did not explicitly name Barnett but spoke about his accusations. “In doing that, I hurt a lot of other people, and a lot of other people before this woman.” LaBeouf described himself as a “pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being” and described Barnett as a “saint” who “saved my life,” adding, “If she hadn't stepped in… and created this path for me to experience ego death, I would either have a really mediocre life or I would be completely dead.”

According to documents seen by Pitchfork, both sides agreed to postpone the trial due to scheduling conflicts with their “entertainment projects.” But in June, LaBeouf’s team filed a request for Barnett’s medical and financial records, arguing that she had been “too busy…to appear for her deposition” and that her claims of emotional distress can’t be true because her career has been so successful. Barnett “alleged severe emotional distress, but she has thrived emotionally and physically working on numerous projects and earning millions,” LaBeouf’s lawyers wrote in a filing obtained by We WeeklyQuoting Barnett's 2019 album, Madeleine; her January Calvin Klein modeling campaign; and her role in the upcoming film The crow“Contrary to what (Barnett) claims, she appears to have increased her notoriety in the years since her relationship with Shia.”

In June, Barnett's lawyers filed a motion decrying LaBeouf's “overbroad and burdensome” requests for private medical and financial information that they say go “well beyond the actual injuries at issue.” PeopleBarnett's lawyers argue that LaBeouf's team is seeking her “entire medical records” after she has already undergone a psychotherapeutic examination and turned over 1,300 pages of documents for trial. Barnett's team has called the requests a “significant invasion” of her privacy.

“While my client was led to believe that LaBeouf was about to take responsibility and enter a program, it is clear that he intends to continue to abuse the victim,” Barnett’s attorney said in a statement to multiple outlets. “Any suggestion that FKA Twigs’ emotional distress should be minimized because of any professional success is absurd and undermines the idea that victims should have hope for the future… Without the trauma she suffered, I can only imagine the level of success she would have achieved by now.”

The Cut has reached out to representatives for Barnett and LaBeouf. We will update this article as soon as we hear back.