FKA twigs has detailed the aftermath of her abusive relationship with Shia LaBeouf and discussed her new romance with photographer Jordan Hemingway.
In a stunning new spread for British Vogue’s April edition – the magazine’s first issue under new editorial leader Chioma Nnadi – the Cellophane singer, 36, shed light on her nearly year-long 2018 relationship with the actor, which caused shockwaves.
The star, real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, hit headlines in 2020 when she filed a lawsuit against the Transformers star, 37, in which she accused the actor of sexual battery, assault, and emotional distress. The trial is due for October this year.
On the aftermath of her relationship with Shia: ‘I think naively I thought it would be like any other break-up, that I’d be sad for six months to a year, and then one day I’d wake up and everything would be fine…
‘But the fact is being abused changes the whole of your nervous system. Because my window of tolerance is now much smaller than it used to be, my body manifests stress in quite extreme ways – it really shows me when it’s upset.’
FKA twigs has detailed the aftermath of her abusive relationship with Shia LaBeouf and discussed her new romance with photographer Jordan Hemingway
The star, real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, hit headlines in 2020 when she filed a lawsuit against the Transformers star, 37, in which she accused the actor of sexual battery, assault, and emotional distress. The trial is due for October this year (the couple pictured in 2018)
FKA is pictured with her new boyfriend Jordan, with whom she went public last year
She looked breathtaking in the shoot which centered around London landmarks and hotspots
FKA filed the lawsuit against the star with a slew of explosive allegations, which the actor finally adressed in 2022, although the singer slammed his ‘gaslighting’.
Branding FKA a ‘saint’, the actor recalled that she ‘saved my life’ – sparking him to wake up and take responsibility for his actions.
The couple dated for just under a year in 2018, after meeting on the set of American drama Honey Boy’, with Twigs later accusing him of ‘relentless abuse’ and ‘knowingly passing on a sexually transmitted disease’.
She branded their relationship ‘the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life’.
He admitted in a 2022 interview: ‘I hurt that woman. And in the process of doing that, I hurt many other people, and many other people before that woman.
She looked breathtaking in stunning snaps from the shoot
‘I was a pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being … When I think about what my life has become, and what it is now, like what my purpose is now … I need to be useful.’
Among her allegations, FKA is accusing Shia of violently attacking and strangling her, knowingly infecting her with an STD, and physical and verbal violence.
But Shia, who has been diagnosed with PTSD and alcoholism, insisted in 2022 that he is in a better place now, branding himself a ‘public sinner’.
He explained; ‘I’m in the tribe of the f***-ups. I’m a very public sinner, a very fallible person in the public sphere. What I think now my purpose is, is to not do…
‘The other examples that we’ve had of how to navigate something like this — which is to go after the woman, or try to win a court case, or get back into a f****** movie or like get back on at all…
‘My purpose, and I mean this with every fibre of my being, is to be instructive with my life, so that I can be an , like a billboard, for a principled way of living.’
In her Vogue spread, FKA elaborated on the aftermath of her pain, writing: ‘I’ve had to be very compassionate with myself and really listen to myself to get better…
The cover shot was a breathtaking snap of FKA sitting atop a black cab in London
‘Now I want to challenge myself to know more about the simple, most pure and important things: love, nature, food, a nontoxic lifestyle, my body. The path I’m on is not the pastel pink yoga leggings aesthetic.’
Since then, she has found love with Jordan, with whom she went public last year. In Vogue she delved into their union, saying: ‘You know it just takes the right person…
‘I’ve kissed a few frogs to get there but I feel that Jordan listens to me and opens me up in a way that no one really has ever been able to…
‘When I’m with somebody who’s not in the public eye in the way I am, I’m conscious of everything I can do to make that situation as comfortable as possible because I’ve been on the other side of it…
‘And it’s really not nice. Right now I feel so ready to stand up for things that I believe in, to protect people who I love.’
On having children, she said: ‘I want to raise my children the way that my mum raised me, which was hands in the dirt with a sense that everything is possible…
She spoke in the magazine’s first issue under new editorial leader Chioma Nnadi
‘One of my best friends has twins, she’s amazing. She’s down Broadway Market, like double buggy, two kids screaming, ice cream in one hand and an apple in the other hand, on the phone closing business deals…
‘I texted her recently and was like, ‘You are an actual icon, you are just killing that.’ It’s incredible, but I’m more of the dungarees and barefoot type, do you know what I mean?’
On feeling her centre of gravity shifting: ‘I love east London. I just want to be in touch with nature again though, that’s what it boils down to…
‘I still feel so plugged into the culture. I feel like I’ve got my hands in drains, channelling the grit of what it means to be in London. I want to rave, I want to make love, I want to meet people. But equally, I want to find peace.’