Yahoo Finance FKA twigs details physical, emotional abuse allegations against Shia LaBeouf: 'I felt so controlled'
More than a month after filing a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf, British musician FKA twigs detailed specific instances of abuse and opened up about wanting to "change... the stigma around domestic abuse."
In a lawsuit filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by USA TODAY, twigs lists five "causes of action" – battery, sexual battery, assault, emotional distress and gross negligence – against LaBeouf and seeks unspecified monetary damages from him after their nearly year-long relationship.
Speaking on the podcast "Grounded with Louis Theroux" released Sunday, twigs, 33, a singer/songwriter/dancer (born Tahliah Debrett Barnett), recalled a frightening incident from February 2019 first described in the lawsuit, in which she said LaBeouf was driving recklessly without a seat belt and "threatening to crash the car unless I said I loved him."
He "ended up basically strangling me in public at a gas station and nobody did anything," she said. "That was a really low moment for me because I felt like I would never be believed."
LaBeouf, 34, previously responded to the allegations in an email to The New York Times, saying he was "not in any 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’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”
USA TODAY has reached out to LaBeouf's representatives for further comment.
Original story: FKA twigs speaks out after filing lawsuit against ex Shia LaBeouf for 'relentless abuse,' assaults
Twigs also described a switch from an "intense honeymoon period" to something setting her partner off, which would then prompt LaBeouf to "start an argument with me, berate me for hours, make me feel like the worst person ever," she said.
"I felt so controlled and I felt so confused and I felt so low, beneath myself that the fear of even leaving and knowing I had all this work to do to get back to just feeling OK, it was completely overwhelming," she added.
"I think, for me, I started to really isolate myself. So, I stopped talking to my friends. I didn't talk to my family. I just was living a very regimented and contained life that I felt got me in the least trouble."
Her perspective changed soon after, when she called a helpline for women experiencing abuse. Hearing her feelings and concerns were valid was a "massive wake-up call," twigs said.
More: Sia alleges Shia LaBeouf 'emotionally hurt' her, shows support for FKA twigs' lawsuit against him
Now, her aim is to reduce the stigma surrounding domestic abuse.
"It is something in society that's a really big problem and it's really common, but for some reason, we don't talk about it," she said.
"All I can do is just think about myself when I'm 50 years old (and) I've got kids," she expressed, "I think about what I want to have stood for. This is something that was completely unexpected. I never thought anything like this would happen to me… When I'm older, if I have a daughter, I want to be able to say, 'This thing happened to me. And I dealt with it.'"
LaBeouf and twigs dated in 2018 and 2019, after meeting on the film “Honey Boy," a vanity project he co-wrote and which was inspired by his childhood and relationship with his father.
The lawsuit, which asserts LaBeouf knowingly gave twigs a sexually transmitted disease, accuses him of “relentless abuse,” including sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.
According to the lawsuit, twigs says her life became a “living nightmare" after she entered a relationship with LaBeouf. She asserts LaBeouf groomed her, "gradually gaining her trust but with the intent of abusing her.” Later, he allegedly engaged in a “continuous stream” of verbal and mental abuse, “belittling” and “berating” her, which soon turned physical and “increasingly violent.”
“Shia LaBeouf hurts women,” the lawsuit said in its opening lines. “He uses them. He abuses them, both physically and mentally. He is dangerous.”
Speaking in Sunday's interview, twigs said the "situation is not really about Shia anymore, and it's not really about me."
She added: "I am doing this for something much bigger. I just want to change the conversation and the stigma around domestic abuse. I am definitely healed to a point where I can put my experience into something positive to try and help other people. That's all I want… It's a big thing to heal publicly and have to do it in front of everyone, but I can do it. I'm a big girl, so I can do it."
Contributing: Maria Puente
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FKA twigs details Shia LaBeouf physical abuse allegations
