Shia LaBeouf and Ex-Girlfriend FKA Twigs’ Relationship, Abuse Allegations: Everything to Know

Nearly one year after Shia LaBeouf and FKA Twigs called it quits on their whirlwind romance, the musician sued the actor for “relentless abuse” and sexual battery.

“It’s a miracle I came out alive,” the England native — real name Tahliah Barnett — told Elle in February 2021 of the twosome’s romance, calling their dynamic “calculated, systematic, tricky and maze-like.”

The Even Stevens alum and the “Cellophane” singer initially connected on the set of their Honey Boy film, which was released in 2019. They started dating in 2018 following LaBeouf’s split from now-wife Mia Goth. Us Weekly eventually confirmed in May 2019 that the Los Angeles native and Twigs had gone their separate ways. By December 2020, the musician filed her lawsuit, which accused LaBeouf of abuse.

“If you put a frog in a boiling pot of water, that frog is going to jump out straight away,” she told Elle. “Whereas if you put a frog in cool water and heat it up slowly, that frog is going to boil to death. That was my experience being with [him].”

She added: “I would say to him, ‘I really don’t want to watch [gruesome true-crime documentaries] before I go to bed. I’m sensitive, it affects me.’ It was so dark, and I was just like, ‘I can’t be totally immersed in this all the time.’ I was very intimidated living with him. He had a gun by the side of the bed and was erratic. [I never knew what would] make him angry with me.”

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LaBeouf, for his part, fervently denied his ex’s allegations at the time, telling The New York Times that many of them “are not true” but he is taking “accountability” for his actions.

“I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism. I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way,” the Holes star told the newspaper in a December 2020 statement.

LaBeouf — who eventually reconnected with Goth in March 2020 — later seemingly opened up about the now-exes’ allegedly abusive relationship, though he didn’t identify Twigs by name.

“I hurt that woman,” the American Honey actor — who shares daughter Isabel with Goth — admitted during an August 2022 appearance on Jon Bernthal’s “Real Ones” podcast. “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-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being. ... 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.”

If you or anyone you know has been sexually abused, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.

Scroll below for everything we know about LaBeouf and Twigs’ tumultuous relationship drama:

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Us confirmed in September 2018 that the twosome had started dating after LaBeouf and the A Cure for Wellness actress amicably separated. After less than one year together, the Fury star and Twigs split.

The Grammy nominee accused LaBeouf of “relentless abuse” in December 2020, filing sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress charges against him. Twigs also alleged that her former partner knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.

“What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,” she noted in her court documents. “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.”

LaBeouf denied her allegations at the time.

“Shia needs help and he knows that,” LaBeouf’s attorney, Shawn Holley, told Variety in December 2020, disputing Twigs’ claims. “We are actively seeking the kind of meaningful, intensive, long-term inpatient treatment that he desperately needs.”

Us confirmed in January 2021 that the Transformers actor was “willing to participate in mediation” amid the court case.

“It may be surprising to you to learn that I was in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship,” Twigs wrote via Instagram in December 2020. “It was hard for me to process too, during and after I never thought something like this would happen to me. Which is why I have decided it’s important for me to talk about it and try to help people understand that when you are under the coercive control of an abuser or in an intimate partner violent relationship leaving doesn’t feel like a safe or achievable option.”

She continued: “I hope that by sharing my experience I can truly help others feel like they are not alone and shed some light on how those who are worried somebody they care about may be in an abusive relationship can help because I understand it can be confusing and hard to know what to do.” 

The Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps actor told Bernthal in August 2022 that he had “f—ked up bad, like crash-and-burn type s—t.” LaBeouf admitted that he didn't think he'd survive Twigs taking her accusations public. "I went and loaded up a gun and sat at my table, and was gonna kill myself," the actor admitted. 

While LaBeouf did not name the “Pendulum” artist at the time, he called her a “saint” who “saved my f—king life.” He noted: “Had she not intervened in my life and not created the avenue for me to experience ego death, I'd either have a really mediocre existence or I'd be dead in full.”

LaBeouf also acknowledged that he had “hurt a lot of people” and needed to make amends with a long list of individuals for his behavior. 

"What I think now my purpose is, is to not do … the other examples we've had of how to navigate something like this," he said. "Which is to go after the woman, or try to win a court case, or get back into a f—king movie or like, get back on at all. ... My purpose, and I mean this with every fiber of my being, is to be instructive with my life, so that I can be an advertisement, like a billboard, for a principled way of living."