FKA twigs Accuses Shia LaBeouf of Sexual Battery and Assault in Lawsuit

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Musician FKA twigs accused actor Shia LaBeouf of sexual battery, assault and emotional abuse in a lawsuit reported by the New York Times on Friday.

FKA twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, met LaBeouf on the set of his film Honey Boy in 2018 and the two began dating soon after the movie wrapped. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, she described a relationship that started with “over-the-top displays of affection” before turning abusive.

The lawsuit accuses LaBeouf of “relentless abuse,” both physical and emotional, and claims the actor knowingly gave Barnett a sexually transmitted disease.

“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel,” LaBeouf told the Times in an email. “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.”

In a subsequent email responding to a litany of claims made against him by both Barnett and Karolyn Pho, another ex-girlfriend accusing him of abuse, LaBeouf said that “many of these allegations are not true” but that his accusers should have “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”

“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” Barnett, told the Times in an interview.

“What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,” she told the 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.”

Read the full Times report here.