'I Felt So Controlled': FKA Twigs Reveals She 'Wouldn’t Look Men In The Eye' While Dating Shia LaBeouf
Ever since she filed a lawsuit against Shia LaBeouf in December 2020, FKA Twigs is opening up more about her time with the actor and said he had very strict rules in place when they were together.
"For me, it was being nice to a waiter or being polite to somebody that could be seen as me flirting or [wanting] to engage in some sort of relationship with somebody else when I’m literally just ordering pasta and being polite," Twigs shared on Louis Theroux’s BBC Radio 4 podcast "Grounded."
"I was told that I knew what he was like, and if I loved him I wouldn’t look men in the eye. I just was living a very regimented and contained life that I felt got me in the least trouble," she shared, explaining she became isolated from friends and family.
The couple met in 2018 on the set of Honey Boy and parted ways in May 2019, but Twigs "genuinely felt it was impossible to leave, I felt so controlled."
According to Twigs, there was "an intense honeymoon period at the beginning" before LaBeouf’s behavior changed, but he gradually became more "jealous and controlling" and noticed the "little things you could do wrong that could take away from the happiness."
The "Cellophane" hitmaker spoke about the "fear and shame" she felt during the nine months she dated LaBeouf and revealed that she got the courage to leave after she called an abuse helpline.
LaBeouf would also allegedly wake the 33-year-old up to "accuse me of staring at the ceiling and thinking about ways to leave him, he would accuse me of masturbating… [accuse] me of wanting to be with somebody else — but it would be, always, I’d say between like four and seven in the morning."
Twigs, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is pressing charges against LaBeouf for "relentless abuse" and emotional distress.
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Even though they parted ways, she still thinks about their relationship. "For a long time, anything that woke me up in the night, even if it was just my dog, or a noise outside, or just needing to go to the bathroom, it could trigger a really intense panic attack," she said.
The singer was left with "left with [post-traumatic stress disorder] from that, which again is just something that I don’t think we really talk about as a society just in terms of the healing when leaving, and how much work that has to be done to recover, to get back to the person that you were before."
In the lawsuit, Twigs also disclosed that LaBeouf hid the fact that he had an STD from her and his "reckless disregard for the health and safety of his partners makes him a danger to women everywhere."
"I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel," LaBeouf told The New York 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."
The actor also claimed that some of Twigs’ allegations are untrue, but he owed her and other women "the opportunity to air their statements publicly and [for me to] accept accountability for those things I have done."