Four and a half years ago, FKA twigs (né Tahliah Barnett) accused her then-boyfriend, Shia LaBeouf, of “relentless” sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Now, mere months before the case was set to go to trial, Barnett filed a Request for Dismissal in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, meaning she can’t refile the claims in the future.
On Tuesday, Barnett and LaBeouf’s attorneys, Bryan J. Freedman (yes, Justin Baldoni’s lawyer) and Shawn Holley, released a joint statement regarding the settlement: “Committed to forging a constructive path forward, we have agreed to settle our case out of court. While the details of the settlement will remain private, we wish each other personal happiness, professional success, and peace in the future.” Had Barnett’s case gone forward, she would’ve faced him in court in September.
Barnett sued LaBeouf in December 2020, claiming that the actor perpetrated a range of violent abuse—from knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease to strangulation—during their year-long relationship. Speaking with The New York Times in 2021, Barnett said: “What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life. 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.”
At the time, Barnett had been seeking $10 million in damages and stated that she’d give a “significant portion” to domestic abuse charities. Meanwhile, LaBeouf has long denied a number of her claims.
In an email to the Times in 2021, LaBeouf wrote: “I’m 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.”
However, when he was confronted with specific details of his own abuse, he “backtracked,” according to the newspaper. LaBeouf sent a second email, writing that “many of these allegations are not true” but Barnett and other accusers should be given “the opportunity to air their statements publicly” and that he must “accept accountability” for his actions.
Then, in a 2022 episode of Jon Bernthal’s Real Ones podcast, LaBeouf again avoided specifics but confirmed that he had “hurt” Barnett.
“I hurt that woman. And in the process of doing that, I hurt many other people, and many other people before that woman. I was a pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being,” he said, noting that when Barnett went public with her story, he considered suicide and ultimately sought out treatment for alcoholism.
Notably, LaBeouf’s abuse has both pre- and post-dated Barnett. Another former girlfriend, Karolyn Pho, accused LaBeouf of physical abuse in Barnett’s suit. The pair dated from 2010 to 2012. Then, in 2018, his rage was captured on camera in Slauson Rec, a new documentary from Leo Lewis O’Neil that follows LaBeouf as he attempted to establish a creative “family” of aspiring actors and potential collaborators in South Central Los Angeles from 2018 to 2020. His intention, the film states, was to create a space for like-minded people with “a story that needs telling.” It was, in essence, an acting company. What it became, however, was a nightmare, thanks to the terror LaBeouf inflicted upon some of its young members. In May, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to shocked critics who called it “more appalling than it is fascinating,” and a “damning, unfiltered, take-no-prisoners portrait of a celebrity losing his shit ever recorded for posterity.”
Fortunately for Barnett, she can now turn the page on this horrific chapter.
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