Shia LaBeouf’s legal team is attempting to shut down FKA Twigs’ claim that she suffered emotional distress as a result of her relationship with the actor.
“[Twigs] has alleged severe emotional distress, but she has been thriving emotionally and physically as she has been working on numerous projects and making millions,” LaBeouf’s attorneys argued in a Monday, June 24, filing obtained by Us Weekly. “[Twigs] is working so much that she has been too busy over the past two years to even appear for her deposition. [Her] work schedule, contracts and economic success are in direct conflict with someone supposedly traumatized by Shia’s alleged actions.”
Twigs, 36, initially filed a lawsuit again LaBeouf, 38, in December 2020, accusing him of “relentless” abuse including sexual battery, sexual assault and knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease. LaBeouf has denied the allegations, although he admitted to hurting Twigs during an August 2022 appearance on the “Real Ones” podcast.
“I hurt that woman,” he said. “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.”
Despite taking some accountability for the problems in their relationship, LaBeouf’s legal battle with Twigs rages on. In Monday’s filing, his legal team claimed that Twigs’ success since she and LaBeouf split in 2019 undermines her claim that she has lost wages and professional opportunities due to emotional distress.
“Contrary to what [Twigs] alleges, she appears to have increased her profile in the years after her relationship with Shia and her career appears to be thriving,” the court documents argue, citing Twigs’ 2019 album, Magdalene, her Calvin Klein modeling campaign and her role in the upcoming film The Crow as evidence.
LaBeouf’s attorneys further claimed that Twigs has failed to produce documentation that proves she lost income due to LaBeouf’s alleged behavior.
“[Twigs] alleges that the release of her album was delayed due to mental anguish, and as a result she lost over $1 million not finishing her album prior to touring. She has not provided support for this alleged delay, the reasons behind it, or that she would have earned an extra $1 million for the album’s earlier release,” the filing claims, before requesting that Twigs “identify her emotional distress symptoms” and produce several documents that would detail her revenue from various projects.
“[Twigs] cannot place her financial condition in issue and further make claims about her emotional distress and then withhold the information that Shia requires to challenge it,” the court docs argue. “It appears that [Twigs] is not suffering from/impaired by any severe emotional distress, but is active and thriving in her career. Shia is entitled to the discovery to confirm what is already visibly apparent.”
Twigs responded with a filing of her own, arguing that she has already provided “a substantial amount of information,” including “submitting to a psychotherapy exam” and providing “over 1,300 pages of documents.”
The singer’s legal team also slammed LaBeouf’s attorneys’ “far-fetched theory” that Twigs’ “level of income is correlated to her emotional distress.”
“A person’s ability to make money, particularly how much money, is not correlated to a person’s emotional distress damages,” the filing continues. “If [LaBeouf] would like to know whether [Twigs] is or is not working, and the extent of work, then [Twigs] can provide this information without revealing her finances. However, [LaBeouf’s] assertion that [Twigs] has somehow waived her financial privacy rights by seeking emotional distress damages is not supported by any case law.”
Twigs’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, reacted to LaBeouf’s team’s strategy in a statement shared with multiple outlets.
“While my client was led to believe that LaBeouf was on a path of taking responsibility and working a program, it is clear he intends his pattern of continuing to abuse the victim. Any suggestion that FKA Twigs’ emotional distress should be discounted because of any career success is preposterous and discounts the idea that victims should have hope for the future,” he said. “Logically, without the trauma that she has suffered I can only imagine the level of success she would have achieved by now.”
Us Weekly has reached out to LaBeouf’s team for comment. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Thursday, June 26, while a trial date for the initial claim is set for October 14.
If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
