Halle Berry has fired back at bombshell child abuse allegations leveled by her ex-husband after he accused her of hurting their 12-year-old son.
French actor Olivier Martinez, 60, accused the Oscar-winning actress, also 60, of jumping on their son, Maceo, “putting her hands around his neck and choking him” during an incident on September 26. Martinez alleged that the incident occurred while Maceo was playing a virtual reality game.
Berry has denied the accusations and claims she is a victim of domestic violence herself. According to TMZ, the Catwoman star said, “I would never hurt our child.”
Berry has been an outspoken advocate for domestic violence survivors, supporting and volunteering at the Jenesse Center, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families affected by it. She has spoken out about the abuse her family faced at the hands of her father, saying that her mother “stayed for too long” and that she and her sister “saw far too much.”
“I’ve suffered the damage of being a child of domestic violence,” she said at a gala in 2015. She has not accused Martinez of domestic violence.
According to court documents obtained by Page Six, Martinez alleged that Berry told Mateo he looked “so stupid” before jumping on him, and also said he was “such an idiot” while he played the VR game. He also alleged that Berry’s fiancé, Van Hunt, was present during the incident.
“She grabbed Maceo by the neck and started choking him while shouting, ‘Who is dominant now?! Who is dominant?!’” the documents state. Martinez claimed that Maceo called him in a panic, asking him to pick him up “right now.”
Berry says that Maceo was wearing a headset while playing the game when she entered his room and told him it was time to stop. She then began filming him on her phone while he was playing. Maceo spotted his mother’s phone out and grabbed it. Berry claims they began “playfully roughhousing” after.
Berry denies all physical abuse and yelling, “Who is dominant now?” She admitted their playful wrestling escalated. She told her son, “You don’t have anything to prove,” as he pushed her. She also claims she attempted to take Maceo’s headset off, and he shoved her in response. Maceo threatened to leave and go back to his father, after which Berry messaged Olivier to ask him to enforce boundaries with Maceo.
According to text messages between Berry and Olivier, that surfaced in legal filings, Martinez told Berry that their son asked to be picked up early and asked if she was OK with the change. “No I’m not ok with it. He wants to fight his mother?? What kind of kid are we raising,” Berry responded. “As a father ask him what kind of kid is he,” she asked in another message.
Martinez later replied, “So u keep him at ur place? even if he [doesn’t want to] stay?”
Berry said, “I’m his mother and this is wrong! He had no respect for his mother and this should not be ok for you as his father!!!” The actress added that Maceo is “disrespectful” to her and that she is “just money bags.”
The next day, Berry told Martinez that she felt “terrible about what happened last night” and she knew Maceo did too.
In the wake of the allegations, Martinez requested sole custody of their son. A Los Angeles County judge placed Berry under visitation restrictions with Maceo, limiting the actress’s time with Maceo. The judge also granted Martinez a temporary restraining order against Berry. However, the judge did not grant Martinez’s request to prevent all contact with Maceo.
In her filings against Olivier, Berry said her ex-husband is not capable of “child-centered guidance.”
Berry and Hunt were spotted with Maceo at the Sky Zone trampoline park in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The former couple shares legal and physical custody of their child. They were married from 2013 to 2015.
Berry’s attorney, Marina Beck, has called Martinez’s filing “entirely meritless and deliberately misleading.”
“Fortunately, Halle is used to this kind of outrageous conduct from Mr. Martinez and, while she is deeply saddened, she will not allow it to deter her from fighting for Maceo’s best interests and providing him with the love and support he needs,” said Beck.
Martinez’s lawyer Patrick Baghdaserians said that the actor’s “paramount concern is the health, welfare and the safety of the minor child, hence the action that he took in court by filing the request for domestic violence restraining order.” He called Martinez “a loving parent,” adding that his “second concern would be for mother to get the appropriate help that she needs to address her issues so she can better herself, which would in turn help the minor child moving forward.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to both Berry and Martinez’s representatives for comment.
