British singer-songwriter FKA Twigs and actor Shia LaBeouf have settled her high-profile abuse lawsuit, putting an end to nearly five years of legal back-and-forth.
The case dates back to December 2020, when FKA Twigs (real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett) filed a $10 million lawsuit in Los Angeles. She accused LaBeouf, her former partner, of “relentless” physical, emotional and mental abuse during their nine-month relationship, which began after meeting on the set of Honey Boy in 2018.
In her legal filings, Barnett detailed incidents of being woken up and “strangled”, being thrown against a car, and facing verbal harassment and control over who she could speak to.
In July 2025, Barnett asked the court to dismiss all claims against LaBeouf “with prejudice”, meaning she can’t refile them in the future. A trial had originally been set for 2024, before delays stalled the case.
Both their lawyers, Bryan Freedman for Barnett and Shawn Holley for LaBeouf, issued a joint statement confirming the matter had been resolved behind closed doors:
“Committed to forging a constructive path forward, we have agreed to settle our case out of court. While the details of the settlement will remain private, we wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace in the future.”
FKA Twigs’ lawsuit, as well as interviews at the time, alleged not only physical violence but also that LaBeouf knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted infection and subjected her to psychological manipulation. In The New York Times, she spoke to the wider context, saying:
“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency”.
LaBeouf denied many of the allegations in court, but publicly acknowledged relationships with issues of abuse and addiction. In an earlier statement to The New York Times, he said:
“I have 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. There is nothing else I can really say”.
In another statement, LaBeouf maintained many of the allegations were “not true” but added that he owed Barnett and others “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done”.
FKA Twigs described the emotional aftermath in a 2021 interview with Louis Theroux on BBC, saying, “I was left with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from that, which…is just something that I don’t think we really talk about as a society.”
The specifics of the settlement remain confidential, as stated by both teams’ legal representatives. According to court records, FKA Twigs’ decision to dismiss the case “with prejudice” means this legal chapter is now definitively closed.
Since the relationship and lawsuit, FKA Twigs has continued her music career, releasing her album Eusexua to critical acclaim and earning Brit Award nominations. LaBeouf, still active in Hollywood and most recently appeared in the film Henry Johnson.
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