FKA Twigs has claimed she was “left with PTSD” after dating Shia LaBeouf.
The singer, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend last month for alleged sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress.
The 33-year-old appeared on the latest episode of the Grounded With Louis Theroux podcast on Monday, where she detailed Shia’s alleged “jealous and controlling” behaviour.
“For me it was being nice to a waiter or being polite to somebody that could be seen as me flirting or want to engage in some sort of relationship with somebody else when I’m literally just ordering pasta and being polite.
“I was told that I knew what he was like, and if I loved him I wouldn’t look men in the eye. So that was my reality for a good four months towards the end of the relationship, that I wasn’t allowed to look men in the eye,” she claimed.
“He would wake me up in the night to accuse me of all sorts of things. Accuse me of staring at the ceiling and thinking about ways to leave him… accusing me of wanting to be with somebody else but it would be, always – I’d say between like four and seven in the morning.
“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,” the songwriter said.
“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.
“I felt so controlled and I felt so confused and I felt so low, beneath myself, that the fear of leaving and knowing I had all this work to do to get back to just feeling okay, it was completely overwhelming.”
The former couple dated for less than a year, before calling it quits in May 2019.
In the detailed lawsuit, FKA Twigs claimed Shia once threatened to crash the car they were driving unless she told him she loved him.
The musician claimed they stopped at a gas station where Shia allegedly threw her against the car, screamed in her face and then forced her to get back in the vehicle.
Prior to the gas station incident, the singer has alleged that she woke in the middle of the night to find the Transformers star choking her.
View this post on Instagram
Days after the lawsuit hit headlines, Shia’s attorney Shawn Holley has told Variety: “Shia needs help and he knows that.”
“We are actively seeking the kind of meaningful, intensive, long-term inpatient treatment that he desperately needs.”
FKA characterised her relationship with Shia as “the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life”.
In response to his ex-girlfriend’s claims, Shia said many of the allegations “are not true” but admitted he isn’t in a position to “defend” any of his actions.
He said: “I owe these women the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those thing I have done.”
“As someone in recovery, I have to face almost daily reminders of things I did say and do when I was drinking.”
“It has always been easy for me to accept responsibility when my behavior reflects poorly on myself, but it’s much harder to accept the knowledge that I may have caused great pain to others.”
“I can’t rewrite history. I can only accept it and work to be better in the future. I write this as a sober member of a twelve-step program and in therapy for my many failings,” he continued.
“I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism, but 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.”
