Shia LaBeouf addresses FKA Twigs' abuse allegations: 'I hurt that woman'
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Shia LaBeouf is finally addressing FKA Twigs' 2020 lawsuit that accused him of "relentless abuse."
LaBeouf appeared on actor Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast on Friday and spoke about allegations which FKA Twigs (real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett) made against him in a lawsuit where she accused her ex-boyfriend of violently attacking and strangling her, and knowingly infecting her with an STD, among other allegations of sexual battery, and physical and verbal violence. Although the actor did not refer to his ex by name on the podcast or speak to Twigs' specific claims, he did cite "failings with Twigs" in an open letter to director Olivia Wilde published on Variety that same day.
"I hurt that woman," LaBeouf said on the podcast. "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 ... When I think about what my life has become, and what it is now, like what my purpose is now ... I need to be useful. And when I look at this #MeToo environment, there's not a whole lot of dudes that are taking accountability."
Mike Marsland/WireImage; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images FKA Twigs and Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf went on to admit that he "f---ed up bad. Like crash and burn type s---. Hurt a lot of people, and I'm fully aware of that." He said that there's a "long list of people that I need to make amends to ... and I'm going to owe for the rest of my life."
The actor said he's in a much better place now than he was when the allegations first went public. "I wanted to hit Twitter and be like, 'Look, I got receipts,'" he said of the time. And while he still didn't name his accuser, he called her a "saint" who "saved my f---ing life."
"Had she not intervened in my life and not created the avenue for me to experience ego death, I'd either have a really mediocre existence or I'd be dead in full," he added.
LaBeouf and FKA Twigs met on the set of his 2019 film Honey Boy and began dating after filming wrapped. They were together for just under a year. In FKA Twigs' lawsuit, another former girlfriend of LaBeouf's, stylist Karolyn Pho, also accused him of abuse, claiming he once drunkenly pinned her to a bed and head-butted her enough that she began bleeding.
When the lawsuit was filed, LaBeouf wrote in an email to The New York Times that "many of these allegations are not true," while adding that he owed his accusers "the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done."
"I'm not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel," he said in a separate email to the Times. "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."
FKA Twigs' attorney Bryan Freedman previously said in a statement to EW, "Shia LaBoeuf has abused Ms. Barnett, Ms. Pho, and others. We tried to resolve this matter privately on the condition that Mr. LaBeouf agree to receive meaningful and consistent psychological treatment. Since he was unwilling to agree to get appropriate help, Ms. Barnett filed this suit to prevent others from unknowingly suffering similar abuse by him."
Mike Marsland/WireImage Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf, who has been diagnosed with PTSD and alcoholism, has had repeated legal issues in the past. Earlier in 2020, he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft in Los Angeles, and he has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct multiple times. A 2015 video also showed him arguing with his then-girlfriend Mia Goth, telling her, "This is the kind of thing that makes a person abusive." After leaving the site of the argument, LaBeouf can be seen in the video saying, "If I'd have stayed there, I would've killed her."
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