“What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,” she said in an interview withThe Times. “I don’t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that’s the thing. It can happen to anybody.”
FKA twigs; Shia LaBeouf.Joe Maher/Getty; JC Olivera/WireImage
Barnett claimed that LeBeouf would squeeze her arm to “the point of bruising” and didn’t go to police at first to not harm his career and because she “thought her account would not be taken seriously.”
She also described an incident when theTransformersactor threw her against his car at a gas station and berated her publicly.
Shia LaBeouf.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
“I just thought to myself, no one is ever going to believe me,” she toldThe Times. “I’m unconventional. And I’m a person of color who is a female.”
She decided to leave him in spring 2019 with the help of a therapist after being together for more than a year. When she tried to move out of the house, he “violently” grabbed her, picked her up and locked her in a room where he yelled at her, the complaint alleged.
LaBeouf addressed the allegations in several emails to the newspaper, saying he was in no 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,” he wrote toThe Times. “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.”
In a different email, however, he said that “many” of the allegations were not true but explained he owed the women “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”
FKA twigs.Joe Maher/Getty
The Timesinterviewed Barnett and another former girlfriend ofThe Tax Collectoractor, named Karolyn Pho. Both alleged instances of abuse and that LaBeouf did not like when they “looked at male waiters.” Barnett said she learned to keep her eyes down when men spoke to her.
Meanwhile, Pho reportedly described a time when she started bleeding after he pinned her to a bed and head-butted her.
The “Sad Day” singer and LaBeouf started dating after she was cast in his filmHoney Boyin 2018. At the time, he would show her “over-the-top displays of affection,” Barnett said in the lawsuit.
She described living with the actor as “frightening.”
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“The whole time I was with him, I could have bought myself a business-flight plane ticket back to my four-story townhouse in Hackney,” she told the newspaper. “He brought me so low, below myself, that the idea of leaving him and having to work myself back up just seemed impossible.”
LaBeouf also told the newspaper that he was in a 12-step program and in therapy.
“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.”
Barnett, a two-time Grammy nominee, plans to donate a significant portion of any monetary damages to charities dedicated to helping survivors of domestic violence.
“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” Barnett toldThe New York Times.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
Jeff Nelson
source: people.com
