FKA Twigs agrees to settle lawsuit alleging abuse from Shia LaBeouf

Winnipeg Free Press

22-07-2025

LOS ANGELES (AP) — FKA Twigs and Shia LaBeouf have agreed to settle her lawsuit alleging LaBeouf was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship.
An attorney for the 37-year-old English singer and actor FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, filed a request in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to dismiss her case against the 39-year-old American actor with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again.
'Committed to forging a constructive path forward, we have agreed to settle our case out of court,' the two said in a joint statement issued Tuesday by their attorneys. 'While the details of the settlement will remain private, we wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace in the future.'
FILE - This combination photo shows FKA twigs, left, at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles, and Shia LaBeouf at the premiere of "The Peanut Butter Falcon" during the London Film Festival, on Oct. 3, 2019. (Jordan Strauss/Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)
First filed in 2020, the case had several trial dates scheduled in the years since, but those were always delayed well in advance.
The two met and became a couple in 2018 after Barnett was cast in a supporting role in 'Honey Boy,' an autobiographical film about LaBeouf's upbringing as a child actor.
After an early 'charm offensive' from LaBeouf, the relationship became a 'living nightmare,' her lawsuit said.
She said LaBeouf put her in a constant state of fear and humiliation, once slammed her into a car, tried to strangle her and knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
She said he also isolated her from family and friends, demanded absolute fealty and was angrily jealous of everyone from waiters she'd been polite with to her ex-fiancé Robert Pattinson.
She said that her experience was part of a pattern for LaBeouf.
'Shia LaBeouf hurts women,' the suit said. 'He uses them. He abuses them, both physically and mentally. He is dangerous.'
LaBeouf said in a statement just after the lawsuit was filed that he had 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.'
But he denied the accusations in the lawsuit in a 2021 filing, saying any injuries done or damages incurred by Barnett were not his doing.
LaBeouf is best known for his roles in 2007′s 'Transformers' and in 2008′s 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.' He also starred in the 2019 film 'The Peanut Butter Falcon' and in last year's 'Megalopolis.'
Known for her genre-bending musical styles, FKA Twigs worked as a backup dancer for other artists before releasing her studio debut, 'LP1,' in 2014. She followed it with 2019's Magdalene and 'Eusexua' from earlier this year. As an actor, she appeared in 2024's 'The Crow.'