FKA twigs has said that her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf’s apology over her abuse claims is ‘gaslighting’ and the conflicting nature of it reminds her of his behaviour during their relationship.
The singer, 33, whose real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, accused Shia, 34, of physically assaulting her, sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress in a legal action she filed in LA Superior Court last December, but he has denied abuse claims.
In a new interview with CBS This Morning on Thursday, FKA told Gayle King: ‘I think it reminds me of some of the gaslighting I experienced when I was with him. The taking some of the blame, but not all of it and then denying it.
Reveal: FKA twigs claims ex Shia LaBeouf’s apology is ‘gaslighting’ as she said ‘taking some blame over abuse but also denying it’ reminds her of his behaviour during their relationship
She also said: ‘Abusers use gaslighting, which is where somebody minimises your experience and alters your narrative and [doesn’t listen] to you and denying your experience.
‘Eventually it did become physical,’ she added. There were certain instances where he would push me and say “you fell”. And I would get really confused and think maybe I did.’
She also broke down in tears as she claimed Shia could have killed them both when he threatened to crash the car around Valentine’s Day 2019 during a ‘disturbing’ trip to a spa in Palm Springs.
FKA claimed that he was ‘speeding down the motorway and saying that if I said I didn’t love him and if I was going to leave him, he would smash the car to the side of a wall.
‘I thought “Wow, he needs so much control over me that he would kill us both.”
His side: The actor has ‘denied each and every’ assault allegation by the artist – and wants her to pay his legal costs after she blamed him for ‘relentless abuse’ (pictured in 2019)
‘And eventually, he pulled over to a gas station and I tried to unload my bags from the car and there were three men opposite the car and I remember thinking “This is it, I’m done, I can’t do this anymore.”‘
She claimed he ‘picked her up, threw her against the car, and started strangling her. FKA told King: ‘That’s when I realised I need help to get out of this relationship.’
Gayle asked: ‘What did the men at the gas station do?’
She replied: ‘They did nothing. They just watched us and I felt so alone. That’s why I wanted to come forward. Victims and survivors shouldn’t have to feel alone.’
FKA continued: ‘After that weekend and going back to where I was staying, I looked at myself in the mirror and one side of me was, like, completely black. And I was so shocked, you know?’
‘So I’ve gone back to where I was staying, and the whole one side of my body is black and blue.
‘It was a nightmare’: FKA told Gayle King on Thursday that Shia could have ‘killed them both’ as he threatened to crash the car following a ‘disturbing’ trip to a spa in Palm Springs in 2019
‘I remember thinking, you know, I’m a dancer and I really love my body, and I take such good care of it.
‘And I was looking at my body and I just thought, “Where did it all go wrong? How am I here?” I never saw this for my life.’
FKA said that at this point, she called a helpline for domestic abuse victims.
Shia’s attorney has said in a court filing that the Honey Boy actor ‘denies generally and specifically each and every allegation’ in FKA’s complaint.
Shia has apologised to ‘those he had hurt’ but has ‘denied each and every’ assault allegation by the singer and wants her to pay his legal costs.
According to legal documents obtained by People, Shia denies that [Barnett] has sustained any injury or loss by reason of any act or omission on the part of [LaBeouf], and denies that [Barnett] is entitled to any relief or damages whatsoever’.
His lawyers added that ‘none of the acts alleged were based on sex and/or the conduct was not sexual’ as they try to get the sexual battery allegations dismissed.
FKA said on Thursday: ‘I think it reminds me of some of the gaslighting I experienced when I was with him. The taking some of the blame, but not all of it and then denying it’
Legal drama: The singer, 33, has accused the screen star, 34, of physically assaulting her, sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress last December (pictured in 2018)
The actor also told The New York Times ‘many’ of the allegations were not true, and that he has ‘no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations.
He apologised but only in part, saying: ‘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.’
The filmmaker also said that he owed the women ‘the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done,’ according to NYT.
Shia added that he was currently in therapy and in a 12-step program, although he is ‘not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism.’
Reflecting on their ‘nightmare’ relationship, FKA claimed her former partner would force her to ‘sleep naked’ and called her ‘disgusting and vile’ in a candid chat with King.
The singer – who dated the troubled actor from September 2018 until June 2019 – said: ‘He would often start an argument with me in the middle of the night. He would start accusing me of doing all sorts of things, planning to leave him in my head.
‘That I was disgusting and vile. Nothing was ever true but I would really doubt myself, especially when I would wake up, and he would be like ”You were lying there with your eyes open, planning to leave me.” And I would be like ”I was literally asleep.”
‘He would only want me to sleep naked because he said if I didn’t, I was keeping myself from him.’
The songstress alleged he abused his power when they dated as she added: ‘It’s this tactic that a lot of abusers use.
‘It’s just this constant availability and everything’s centered around them and I think, that’s why I wanted to come out and talk about this because the signs really are from the beginning.’
The songwriter also claimed there wasn’t ‘one set moment’ when she noticed his behaviour, stating: ‘It’s very subtle. That’s the thing about, you know, domestic abuse, domestic violence.
It’s over: The filmmaker has since split from girlfriend Margaret Qualley, 26, with sources saying the actress was aware of the ‘backlash’ she received for dating him (pictured last year)
‘It’s a real gradual step by step process to get somebody to a place where they lose themselves so much that they accept or feel like they deserve to be treated in that way.
‘It’s not one thing, it’s loads of tiny little things that get sewn together into a nightmare.’
MailOnline has contacted Shia’s representatives for further comment.
The TV and film star has since split from girlfriend Margaret Qualley, 26, with sources saying the actress was aware of the ‘backlash’ she received for dating him.
In her lawsuit, first obtained by The New York Times, the British actress claimed he knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease during their year long relationship.
The exes began dating in 2018 after she was cast in his movie Honey Boy and they split in spring 2019, with the singer saying she found the courage to leave him with the help of a therapist.
In the court documents, FKA alleged that he had a gun next to his bedside while they slept, and she feared he would shoot her if she went to the bathroom thinking she was an intruder.
‘I thought to myself, “If he shoots me, and then if there is some sort of investigation, they will put the pieces together. I need to leave little clues,”‘ she told Elle this month.
The documents also included s an allegation that he squeezed her arm ‘to the point of bruising’ and ‘violently’ grabbed her when she attempted to move out.
She also alleged he threw her against his car at a gas station and berated her in public.
‘What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,’ she said to The New York 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.’
Most recently, she also told Elle that would ‘shamelessly brag’ about shooting stray dogs, claiming it helped him ‘get into character’ for his role in the 2020 film The Tax Collector.
FKA confronted him about it, but Shia managed to turn her into the villain — a classic abuser tactic.
Backlash: After news of the suit emerged, a number of other former partners of LaBeouf stepped forward to accuse him of various forms of abuse (his ex Sia pictured)
‘I said to him, “That’s really bad. Why are you doing that?”‘ she recalled.
‘And he was like, “Because I take my art seriously. You’re not supporting me in my art. This is what I do. It’s different from singing. I don’t just get up on a stage and do a few moves. I’m in the character.”
‘He made me feel bad, like I didn’t understand what it was like to be an actor or to do this…Method [acting technique],’ she said.
The media personality recently ‘parted ways’ with his agent while receiving care at a residential treatment facility.
It’s understood that he has ceased working with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), while he receives therapeutic care at an unspecified treatment facility in the United States.
Insiders told Variety that CAA haven’t been working with him for around a month but they haven’t fired him.
Instead, Shia made the decision to step away from his career so he has the time and space to get help.
The Transformers star is said to have been receiving treatment for over five weeks and his release from the unnamed facility will depend on his recovery.
It is unclear what specific treatment the Transformers star is receiving but he has previously been in rehab for alcoholism.
His lawyer previously admitted he ‘desperately’ needed to undergo treatment. Shawn Holley said in December: ‘Shia needs help and he knows that.
‘We are actively seeking the kind of meaningful, intensive, long-term inpatient treatment that he desperately needs.’
After news of the suit emerged, a number of his former partners stepped forward to accuse him of various forms of abuse.
Singer Sia said he ‘conned’ her into an adulterous relationship with him, calling him a ‘pathological liar’. He had previously starred in her music video for the song Elastic Heart in 2015.
Brief romance: The pair dated for less than a year before parting ways in June 2019 (pictured that year)
Songwriter Katy Rose has also alleged that he ‘groped’ her ‘violently’ at a party in the Hollywood Hills once and stylist Karolyn Pho joined Twigs’ lawsuit.
Pho, a stylist, alleged in the suit that Shia ‘drunkenly pinned her to a bed and head-butted her, enough that she bled.’
Questions also arose around his sudden departure from Olivia Wilde’s forthcoming movie, Don’t Worry Darling.
Shia had been picked for a role but left the project before it began shooting and has been replaced by Harry Styles.
UK readers: Call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
US readers: Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline on 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or visit www.thehotline.org
Background: The former couple were first romantically linked in September 2018 (pictured together in 2018)