FKA Twigs says she was allowed to suffer panic attacks following her allegedly abusive relationship with Shia LaBeouf.
The British singer detailed in full for the first time the “fear and shame” she felt during her nine-month relationship with the actor.
And he revealed that he had the courage to leave LaBeouf only after calling an abuse helpline.
In an interview with Louis Theroux on the BBC Radio 4 podcast “Grounded”, she claimed that LaBeouf forbade her to look other men in the eye – and isolated her from friends and family.
She was left feeling that she was “the worst person ever” – and she thought no one would believe her after passers-by failed to help when LeBeouf drowned her at a gas station.
“I really felt it was impossible to leave, I felt so controlled … it was completely overwhelming,” she said.
The couple met on the set of the movie “Honey Boy” in 2018 and broke up in May 2019.
In December 2020, Twigs announced that it had sued LeBeouf for sexual battery, aggression and provocation of emotional suffering.
She told Theroux that there was “an intense honeymoon in the beginning” before LaBeouf’s behavior became abusive.
She said she gradually became aware that he was becoming more “jealous and domineering” and noted “the little things you could do wrong that could take you away from happiness.”
“For me, it was nice for a waiter or to be polite to someone who might be seen as me flirting or [wanting] to engage in some kind of relationship with someone else, when I literally order pasta and am polite, ”she said.
“I was told that I know what he is like and, if I loved him, I would not look men in the eye. So this was my reality for four good months until the end of the relationship, so I was not allowed to look men in the eye. ”
The star said she started looking down when the couple went out together and began to isolate themselves from friends and family, adding: “I was simply living a very regimented and contained life, which I felt I had. put her in the smallest trouble ”.
LaBeouf – who, as Page Six reported, was removed from all promotions for his latest film, Oscar-winning “Women’s Pieces,” following the trial – also expected her to meet a quota daily affection, she claimed.
Twigs said: “He said that his previous partner met this number very well and I was inadequate … there were 20 touches, 20 kisses a day, reinforcements of my devotion for him and for me being committed to of him, which is exhausting because you can’t be natural. ”
“She would wake me up at night to accuse me of all sorts of things,” she said. “Accuse me of looking at the ceiling and thinking of ways to leave him, he would accuse me of masturbating … [accuse] I would like to be with someone else – but it would always be, I would say between four and seven in the morning. ”
She spent the blockade back in London trying to recover, as she admitted: “For a long time, anything woke me up at night, even if it was just my dog, or a noise outside or I just had to go to bathroom, could trigger a very intense panic attack. ”
She said she “stayed with [post-traumatic stress disorder] of that, which again is just something I don’t think we’re really talking about as a society just in terms of healing on departure and how much work needs to be done to get you back, to get back to the person you were before. ”
A “turning point” came when she called a helpline and was taken seriously, she said, adding that she wanted to be able to tell her daughter that she had been abused.
LeBeouf told the New York Times that many of Twigs’ allegations were untrue, but said they were due to her and Karolyn Pho, another woman whose allegations are in process, [for me to] I accept responsibility for those things I did. ”
In another statement, he added: “I am not in a position to tell anyone how he made my behavior feel. I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. ”
He said that “it has been abusive for me and for everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting those closest to me. I’m ashamed of that story and I’m sorry for those I hurt. I can’t say anything else. ”
Page Six contacted LaBeouf for comment.