FKA Twigs opens up about alleged abuse of Shia LaBeouf in BBC interview

In December, FKA Twigs took legal action against her ex-boyfriend, actor Shia LaBeouf, pointing to a pattern of physical and emotional abuse she says she suffered in the year they met. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4 podcaster Louis Theroux, the singer detailed some of the ways LaBeouf allegedly kept her trapped in the relationship and at home.

At first, she says, he cultivated “an intense honeymoon period,” establishing “how brilliant things can be … if you behave well.” And from there he would have become extremely controlling: when it came to displays of affection, “I had a quota that I had to stick to, that was going to change,” Twigs told Theroux. “It was like touching, looking or kissing,” a number of gestures allegedly left to LaBeouf’s discretion. “And I had to get the touches and the kisses correct.” But I never… knew what exactly the number was, ”she continued. “Her ex-partner apparently met that number very well, so I just fell short.” When she didn’t meet her subjective criteria, Twigs said, “He started an argument with me, berated me for hours, made me feel like the worst person ever.”

Twigs also recalled LaBeouf’s (alleged) jealousy: “Being nice to a waiter, or being polite to someone, could be seen as flirting or wanting to engage in some kind of relationship with someone. else, while I’m literally just ordering pasta, ”she said. “I was told that I knew what he looked like and that if I loved him I wouldn’t look men in the eye. It was my reality for four good months towards the end of the relationship, that I was not allowed to look men in the eye.

Her daily life has become intensely “regimented” in other ways, she explained. Twigs told Theroux that LaBeouf woke her regularly before 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. just to castigate her for a litany of imaginary offenses, such as “staring at the ceiling and thinking about ways to get out of it,” he said. she declared. “He would accuse me of masturbating … [accuse] me wanting to be with someone else. For months afterward, waking up in the middle of the night “would trigger an intense panic attack,” Twigs said.

Much of what Twigs discussed in this interview, she also mentioned in her lawsuit. There, she noted instances of physical abuse: the time LaBeouf allegedly threatened to crash their car if she didn’t tell him she loved him, then strangled her when she got out to leave; how she avoided using the bathroom at night, lest he mistake her for an intruder and shoot her with the loaded gun he allegedly kept by the bed; how he would have driven by shooting stray dogs to enter the character for a role. Meet a New York Times report on the filing, LaBeouf said that while “many of these allegations are not true,” he is “in no position to tell anyone how [his] the behavior made them feel.

“I have no excuse for my alcoholism or my aggressiveness, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a habit of hurting the people closest to me, ”he told the Times. “I’m ashamed of this story and sorry for those I hurt. I really can’t say anything else. “

And, indeed, Twigs isn’t the only partner in LaBeouf’s past to have witnessed these types of behaviors. Costume designer Karolyn Pho added her experiences of the actor’s physical abuse and alleged drunken threats to kill her at trial. Sia later called LaBeouf a “pathological liar”. And, in 2015, LaBeouf was filmed yelling at his then-girlfriend Mia Goth for supposedly engaging in “the kind of shit that makes a person abusive” and then thinking to himself: “If I had stayed there, I would have killed her” after the fact.

“I never thought something like this would happen to me,” Twigs told Theroux, explaining his reasons for suing LaBeouf. “When I’m older, if I have a daughter, I want to be able to say, ‘This thing happened to me. And I took care of it. It’s a great thing to heal publicly and have to do it in front of everyone, but I can do it. I am a big girl and I can do it.