Shia LaBeouf and FKA Twigs release joint statement as sexual battery lawsuit settled
British singer FKA Twigs and American actor Shia LaBeouf have reached a private settlement out of court after she accused him of assault and "relentless abuse". The case between the former couple, who dated from 2018 until the end of 2019, had been scheduled to go to trial last year, but was postponed multiple times.
A statement from each star's respective lawyers reads: "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."
According to legal documents initially obtained by Us Weekly, the British musician, birth name Tahliah Barnett, has filed to dismiss her lawsuit against her former boyfriend with prejudice, which means she cannot refile the claims in the future.
The 37-year-old singer sued LaBeouf in 2020 for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, alleging a pattern of "relentless" abuse. In the suit and in an interview with the New York Times, Barnett claimed that LaBeouf, whom she dated from 2018 to 2019 after meeting on the set of his semi-autobiographical film Honeyboy, knowingly exposed her to a sexually transmitted infection, attempted to strangle her and slammed her against a car.
LaBeouf has always denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The Transformers actor issued a statement when Barnett first went public with her allegations, telling the New York Times in an email: "I'm not in any position to tell anyone how my behaviour made them feel. I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalisations.
"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."
LaBeouf, who became a father in March 2022 with wife Mia Goth, opened up about the abuse allegations against him on Jon Bernthal's podcast Real Ones. 'I hurt that woman,' LaBeouf said, without naming any woman in particular. "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-centred, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being."
The 39-year-old actor went on to add: "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. I f**ked up bad. Like crash and burn type shit. [I] hurt a lot of people, and I'm fully aware of that. And I'm going to owe for the rest of my life."
Speaking to Louis Theroux in 2021, Barnett said she felt "scared and intimidated and controlled" during her time with LaBeouf. "I was left with PTSD [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," she shared on the BBC Radio 4 Grounded podcast.
LaBeouf made his stage debut in the premiere production of David Mamet's play Henry Johnson in 2023 and played a lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's drama Megalopolis the following year. He is currently connected to the production of God of the Rodeo, a film set in 1967 and centring around the story of an inmate rodeo at Angola Prison.
Barnett released her third studio album Eusexua in January, which peaked at number three on the UK albums chart. The Cheltenham-born singer had been set to perform at Coachella festival in April but was forced to withdraw from the line-up due to visa issues.
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