FKA Twigs Forces Shia LaBeouf to Void Their NDA

FKA twigs is free of a 2025 nondisclosure deal with Shia LaBeouf after he agreed those clauses are terminated and void. On October 5 her lawyer told Los Angeles Superior Court the fight was over, and on October 6 she asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.

The singer, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, had sued in March to stop the actor from enforcing the gag in their July 2025 settlement. That paper was supposed to close a sexual battery case she filed in December 2020. It became a second lawsuit instead.

The NDA Is Terminated and Void

Mathew Rosengart, national co-chair of media and entertainment litigation at Greenberg Traurig, filed a notice of settlement on October 5. LaBeouf, he wrote, “has agreed that the non-disclosure provisions (NDAs) contained” in the 2025 settlement “are terminated and void.” The request to dismiss with prejudice followed on October 6, so Barnett cannot bring this NDA case again.

The October papers also record the end of the private claim that started the second fight. LaBeouf dismissed an arbitration he opened on December 19, 2025, which sought money from her based on comments in an October 2025 magazine interview. Rosengart wrote that the court action had “achieved its purpose.”

WHAT WE KNOW

• The clauses: The disputed nondisclosure terms in the July 2025 settlement are terminated and void.
• The arbitration: The December 19, 2025 money claim over the magazine interview has been dismissed.
• The 2026 case: Barnett dismissed it with prejudice after the voiding, and she was not seeking damages in that filing.
• The 2025 dollars: The amount paid to end the original suit has not been made public.

WHAT’S UNCONFIRMED

• The arbitration sum: Her March complaint called the demand “exorbitant” and did not publish a figure.
• New payment: The October papers as described do not state whether any fresh money changed hands to kill the NDA.

Shawn Holley, a lawyer for LaBeouf, said he “wishes Twigs nothing but the best in her life and career and, to that end, has agreed to end their long-standing dispute.” She added that “Twigs has spoken about this matter for years and there is now nothing to prevent her from continuing to do so.”

One Magazine Answer Became a Money Claim

The 2025 settlement came with a joint line about happiness, success, and peace. In an October 1, 2025 interview, Barnett was asked whether she felt safe now that the chapter was closed. She said she did not, then pointed away from herself and toward two survivor groups.

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.

Tahliah Debrett Barnett, October 1, 2025 interview

Her March complaint called that answer “laudable, generic, and benign.” LaBeouf’s team treated it as a breach. The arbitration that followed, her lawyers wrote, was “an attempt to bully and intimidate” her and “extract money.”

Holley said in March they were “surprised” by the claim that Barnett was being silenced. The singer had signed, Holley said, after “a months-long mediation, presided over by one of the most respected mediators in the country,” with her own counsel in the room. LaBeouf later withdrew the arbitration, Holley said, at Rosengart’s request. He still would not concede that the NDA itself was unenforceable. That is why the March case went forward.

The same March filing said LaBeouf had talked about the relationship himself, including in a late-February interview in which he called his former girlfriend “a good girl.” Barnett’s lawyers called those comments breaches of the same deal he was trying to enforce against her. In 2022, on Jon Bernthal’s Real Ones podcast, LaBeouf had already said, “I hurt that woman,” without using her name.

What California’s STAND Act Bans

The March suit did not ask for a new payout. Rosengart called it “the unusual case that is not about money but about upholding and enforcing California law and policy designed to protect survivors by nullifying illegal NDAs.” The statute he meant is the Stand Together Against Non-Disclosure Act, written into Code of Civil Procedure Section 1001 after Senate Bill 820.

From January 1, 2019, California prohibits gags on sexual assault facts in settlements of filed civil or administrative claims, along with sexual harassment and related sex-discrimination claims. A court cannot bless a conflicting secrecy order even if both sides ask. Senate Bill 331, the Silenced No More Act, later widened the workplace clauses; a noncompliant provision is void as a matter of law and against public policy.

THREE GAG RULES IN PLAY

The July 2025 deal was signed years after Section 1001 took effect, so the California settlement rule is the one that bites. The federal Speak Out Act would not have done that work. It leaves post-dispute settlement gags untouched.

Barnett’s complaint put the policy in plain words: the STAND Act forbids NDAs that “attempt to prevent and chill victims of sexual abuse from speaking about the facts related to their suffering.” Hollywood still writes those clauses. Voiding one after it has already been used to open a private money claim is rare, even in a state that already says many of them are dead on arrival.

The Battery-Versus-Assault Defense

LaBeouf’s lawyers did not only say she had signed with her eyes open. They also tried a word fight inside Section 1001. Her team said the defense was that the statute “extend[s] only to survivors of ‘sexual assault’” and not to survivors of “sexual battery.” They called that reading preposterous.

The 2020 complaint charged sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress. The sexual battery count rested in part on an allegation that he knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease. The assault count described physical attacks, including a choking incident and a gas-station assault after a desert trip just after Valentine’s Day in 2019. The statute’s first subsection names “an act of sexual assault.” It also names sexual harassment. Her lawyers argued the NDA still purported to stop her from discussing “sexual abuse, assault, and battery by LaBeouf.”

That parsing is how a finished settlement turns into a second case. If battery could be walled off from assault, a defendant might keep a gag that California already bans in the neighboring claim. He did not take that argument to a ruling. He agreed the clauses are terminated and void, and she dropped the suit.

In December 2020, when the first case was filed, LaBeouf said many of the allegations were not true. He also wrote, “I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.” He has denied the specific 2020 claims in later filings. The October papers do not adjudicate those facts. They take the gag off the table.

A Docket That Outlasted the First Settlement

They met in 2018 on Honey Boy, the autobiographical film LaBeouf wrote, and began dating after the shoot wrapped. Barnett has said the relationship ran just under a year. The legal file ran much longer than the romance.

THE DOCKET FROM 2018 TO 2026

1. 2018: They meet on the Honey Boy set and start dating after filming ends. She later said they moved in together in October 2018.
2. 2018 to 2019: The relationship, which she would later call “relentless abuse,” ends after less than a year.
3. December 11, 2020: Barnett sues in Los Angeles Superior Court for sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress.
4. August 26, 2022: LaBeouf says on Bernthal’s podcast, “I hurt that woman,” without naming her.
5. July 2025: They settle the 2020 case ahead of trial. The deal includes the NDA. A joint statement wishes each other “personal happiness, professional success and peace in the future.”
6. October 1, 2025: She tells an interviewer she would not say she feels safe and names Sistah Space and No More.
7. December 19, 2025: He opens a secret arbitration seeking money over those remarks.
8. March 25, 2026: She sues to block enforcement of the NDA under the STAND Act.
9. October 5 to 6, 2026: He agrees the NDA is terminated and void. She dismisses with prejudice. The arbitration is dismissed.

The 2020 complaint opened with a hard line, “Shia LaBeouf hurts women,” and closed another with, “The days in which LaBeouf can mistreat and harm women with impunity are over.” A second woman, Karolyn Pho, added her own assault allegations to that file. That was not tried. The July 2025 settlement took the claims off a public calendar and left the NDA behind as live contract language.

Other Women Still Bound by Similar Deals

Rosengart has been saying since March that this file was a vehicle for people who cannot afford a second lawsuit. The October notice repeats that frame. “FKA twigs is proud to be able to continue speaking about her experience and advocating for other women, including those who may lack the resources to speak out and defend themselves,” he wrote.

Twigs stood up for something larger than herself, all female survivors of sexual abuse. After Mr. LaBeouf’s now-dismissed, failed December 2025 arbitration against twigs, this important victory completely frees her to discuss her experience, advocate for other women who might be less privileged, and support the charitable causes of her choice.

Mathew Rosengart, attorney for Tahliah Debrett Barnett, in a statement

The charities she named in October 2025 are not props in a caption. Sistah Space is a London specialist charity for Black women facing domestic and sexual abuse. Its own site lists FKA twigs as an ambassador who has curated donated fashion for the group. No More is the other organization she cited in the same answer. The arbitration treated that advocacy as a contract problem. The voiding treats it as speech she can keep doing.

WHAT THE VOIDING NOW ALLOWS

• Her own account: She can discuss the facts of her own experience without that 2025 NDA hanging over the next interview.
• The charities: She can keep naming Sistah Space and No More, and other causes, “without fear of reprisal,” the October notice says.
• The next case: Other California settlements in this class of claim already sit under Section 1001. This file is a public example of a defendant agreeing to tear the clause up after trying to collect on it.

Researchers who studied the STAND Act found cases still settle without secrecy clauses on the facts. The July 2025 deal shows the other habit: the dollars stay quiet, and a nondisclosure clause still gets drafted, then used. Barnett had already been talking for years, as Holley noted. The second case was about whether the paper could still be used to bill her for doing it.

She can name the groups and the facts now, and the 2025 clauses cannot be revived against her in this case. The dollar figure from July 2025 remains undisclosed, which California still allows. The gag on the underlying facts does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is California’s STAND Act?

Senate Bill 820, signed in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown, added Section 1001 to the Code of Civil Procedure from January 1, 2019. A claimant may ask that a settlement hide their own identity; the accused has no matching right to disappear from the facts. Courts may still consider the pleadings when they decide whether a claim sits inside the statute.

When Did FKA Twigs Sue Shia LaBeouf?

She filed the original civil case on Friday, December 11, 2020, in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking damages on three counts. Karolyn Pho, another former partner, added assault allegations in that same period of public filings. The NDA case was a separate complaint filed on March 25, 2026.

Does the Federal Speak Out Act Cover This NDA?

No. President Joe Biden signed the Speak Out Act on December 7, 2022, after a 315-109 House vote. It blocks enforcement of predispute nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses in sexual assault and sexual harassment disputes. A gag signed to settle an already live claim, like the July 2025 deal, is outside that federal law and is governed instead by California’s settlement statute.

Can FKA Twigs Discuss How Much She Settled For?

Section 1001 still lets parties keep the dollar figure confidential even when the facts cannot be gagged. Neither side has released the July 2025 number. The October 2026 papers, as described, also do not attach a public price to the voiding itself.

Who Is Sistah Space?

Sistah Space was founded in 2015 after the murders of Valerie Forde and her 22-month-old daughter, and it describes itself as the UK’s first specialist domestic abuse charity for Black women of African and Caribbean heritage. Barnett is listed there as an ambassador and donor. She named the group, with No More, in the October 1, 2025 interview that LaBeouf’s arbitration treated as a breach.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a civil dispute and related California statutes. It is for information only and is not legal advice, a prediction of how any other case will end, or a recommendation to sign, challenge, or ignore a contract. Anyone facing a nondisclosure clause, a settlement, or an abuse-related claim should consult a licensed attorney in the relevant state before acting. Names, dates, and case statuses reflect the court papers and public statements described here and can change if further filings are made.