Tahliah Barnett, better known as FKA twigs, is suing Shia LaBeouf over an “unlawful” NDA included in the settlement that resulted from the Grammy winner’s 2020 sexual battery lawsuit against the “Transformers” star.
In the lawsuit, obtained by Variety, lawyers for Barnett state that after the 2020 case, LaBeouf “extracted a settlement” that contained “unlawful” terms under California’s Stand Together Against Non-Disclosure Act (STAND Act), which nulls portions of NDAs in sexual abuse settlements such as Barnett’s.
The suit also states that in 2025, LaBeouf filed a “secret arbitration complaint” in an attempt to collect an “exorbitant” amount of money for a supposed breach of the 2020 settlement. LeBeouf’s arbitration claim allegedly targeted Barnett’s quotes from an October 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, during which she was asked if she felt “a sense of safety” after moving on with her relationship with LeBeouf. Barnett responded, “No, I wouldn’t say I feel safe. I feel really passionate about being involved with organizations such as Sistah Space and No More, to help survivors in any way that I can. I think it’s less about me at this point and more about looking forward. Just, you know, moving on with my life.”
The suit adds that “even if the NDA provisions at issue were legal,” Barnett’s statements to the outlet were “laudable, generic and benign,” and therefore protected.
“LaBeouf’s campaign of intimidation and abuse of the legal system denigrates not just Mr. Barnett but every survivor of sexual abuse in this State,” the suit reads. “As the California Legislature has made clear, survivors should have the right to tell their stories without fear or coercion, and California law does not and must not allow abusers and bullies to silence them through secret agreements containing unconscionable, unlawful gag orders.”
Barnett’s lawyers claim that she was “forced” to file this motion as a way to combat LeBeouf’s “erroneous, perposterous legal postion: that he is somehow not covered by the STAND Act becasue he was supposedly sued by Ms. Barnett in 2020 only for sexual ‘battery,’ not sexual ‘assault’ and the STAND Act does not cover him as a sexual batterer even though, as matter of both common sense and law, the STAND Act covers both.”
In December 2020, Barnett sued LaBeouf in the Superior Court of California for injuries sustained “over months of ‘physical, sexual and mental abuse’ during their relationship.”
Source: variety.com
