A judge has granted a restraining order against actress Halle Berry, after her ex-husband Olivier Martinez accused her of attacking their 12-year-old son and putting him into a choke hold, in what Martinez alleges is just the “latest incident of abuse” among multiple. Newsweek has broken down the details of these claims and compiled a timeline of the former couple’s longstanding legal battles. Martinez, an actor known for his work in French cinema, said his and Berry’s son, Maceo Robert Martinez asked him to fetch him from his mother’s house last Saturday, after she yelled at and “physically fought” him.
In court documents reviewed by Newsweek, Martinez also alleged that Berry, who “has been trained as an MMA fighter,” has, on multiple occasions, put Maceo in a choke hold and hold it there until he ‘taps out’.” “There have been multiple times when [Berry] has unprovokedly grabbed our son's neck from the back when he was not looking and forced him to tap out,” Martinez said. Judge Shelley Kaufman on Thursday issued a temporary order, reviewed by Newsweek, temporarily restricting Berry to unsupervised daytime visits with her son. There has been no legal ruling on whether the allegations are true or false.
Berry’s attorney Marina Beck has called Martinez’s filing “entirely meritless and deliberately misleading.” “To say this filing is entirely meritless and deliberately misleading would be an understatement,” Beck said in a statement to PEOPLE. 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.” Newsweek contacted Beck, via email, for comment on Friday. Berry and Martinez, married in 2013, have a long history of legal battles with each other.
Although their marriage legally ended in 2016, their divorce was only settled in 2023, after eight years of disputes over issues like custody of their son, child support and legal costs. Martinez said in his court filing that Maceo called him on Saturday night, saying Berry has “physically attacked him and choked him.” Martinez said he could hear Maceo “panicking.” He said Berry’s current partner helped Maceo bring his bags to the car. Martinez said Maceo “placed his head in his hands and did not speak” on the way home, but opened up later that night when he asked to sleep with his father.
Maceo said he was playing with his Virtual Reality (VR) headset in his bedroom when Berry came in and “began pushing” him in what “appeared to be intended in a joking manner,” according to Martinez. When Maceo said “stop, let me finish the game first,” Berry allegedly told her son he looks “so stupid" and is “such an idiot.” “The situation escalated from there. Petitioner jumped on Maceo and started physically fighting with him,” Martinez said.
Who is dominant?’.” “Maceo told me he had to fight back,” Martinez said. Screengrabs of text messages between Berry and Martinez show the parents talking after Maceo had called his father and Berry later saying she “feels terrible” about what happened that night. On Saturday night, when Martinez texted Berry to ask if she was okay with him fetching Maceo, she replied: “No I’m not okay with it.
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