FKA Twigs is speaking out about her decision to speak publicly about the alleged abuse she faced at the hands of her ex, Shia LaBeouf.
The singer filed charges against LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. According to Rolling Stone, the trial will begin on April 17, 2023.
“I just didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, and that trumped any way that I felt about what people may think about me now, positively or negatively,” she told British GQ.
“If I ever have children, I want them to know that I stood up for myself, and that’s important. And sometimes, standing up for yourself is messy. Sometimes it can cause more trauma, and sometimes it can be dividing. People don’t expect you to stand up for yourself, but I did and I’m proud of it, and what happened to me wasn’t right.”
In the lawsuit, the Twigs recalled an incident where she woke up to see LaBeouf towering over her. According to the court documents, she alleged that he violently squeezed her arms against her will and choked her. As he was strangling her, he was whispering, “If you don’t stop you are going to lose me,” the lawsuit states.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women are three times more likely than white women to experience death as a result of domestic violence–with 22% of domestic violence events ending in homicide.
Twigs is a proud survivor.
“One of the greatest achievements of the whole of my life was keeping my sh-t together. It was one of the things that I’m most proud of, that I was able to go on tour and do interviews and stay graceful and keep that calmness,” she continued. “I don’t even know if it’s right or wrong that I was able to do that. I look at that as a testament to my upbringing and a testament to how much I love my art and a testament to how much I want to show up for people that bought tickets to my gig, because sometimes it was so difficult.”
Continue reading the full interview here.
