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Who is Shia LaBeouf's dad Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf? Actor claims he had an abusive dad and witnessed his mother's rape

The statements made by Shia and Jeffrey reveal a tragic tory of childhood trauma and domestic abuse
UPDATED DEC 15, 2020
Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf  (Megans Law Jail), Shia LaBeouf's with mother Shayna Saide (Getty Images)
Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf (Megans Law Jail), Shia LaBeouf's with mother Shayna Saide (Getty Images)

Day after 'Terminator' star Shia LaBeouf’s ex-girlfriend, singer FKA Twigs, accused him of mental and physical abuse in a lawsuit, interviews of the actor opening up about his childhood trauma have gone viral. Both the actor and his father's statements from resurfaced interviews have come to light and are doing the rounds on social media. These old but telling statements reveal a tragic story of domestic abuse that happened to him and his mother at a very young age. The 34-year-old's career boasted of the ultimate success story when he starred as a lead in the Disney series 'Even Stevens' at the age of 13. But his childhood was filled with trauma and abuse as he had a drug-addicted dad who abused him, verbally and physically. He also revealed that he witnessed the rape of his mother when he was only 9-years-old. The incident left him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

"The only thing my father gave me that was of any value is pain,” the actor revealed during a chat with Interview magazine in 2014. “My dad is the key to most of my base emotions. My greatest and my worst memories are with my father, all my major trauma and major celebration came from him. It's a negative gift."

Conceived on a sleeping bag in the back of his dad's van, Shia was raised in a very low-income family. He used to stay in a poverty-stricken area of Echo Park, in Los Angeles, until he was nine. His father, Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, was a veteran who witnessed three tours of the Vietnam war, but was haunted by the horrific sights he saw during the war, and the trauma he gave his family was allegedly due to it. LaBeouf revealed that his father, Jeffrey was a hot dog salesman and also a rodeo clown. He was also a convicted sex offender and an alcoholic and heroin addict. Jeffrey was jailed in 1980 for attempting to rape a woman after attacking a stranger in her car. "I went to the joint for attempted rape. This was in 1980. Whatever I was doing, I have no clue. I was blackout drunk. I’d done cocaine and also alcohol. I’m 6 foot 3; this person was 5 foot 2 and 29 years old. It hurt my heart to see her in the courtroom. I was appalled. I have no clue why I was in that car, whether I was carjacking the car or what. I have no rape in my history so I don’t know, but I was appalled. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I just said, “Your honor, I plead no contest.” The judge said, “Okay, three years, attempted rape," Jeffrey said in an interview with Gen in 2019.

According to the Star magazine, Jeffrey was jailed between 1981 and 1983 after being convicted. He was also listed on the Megan's Law website, which gives people access to sex offenders across the US. But his sexual assaults reportedly did not end there. According to an article by The Sun, "In 2000, he was accused of sexual harassment by an unnamed actress on the set of his son’s TV show Even Steven. Shia also confirmed an incident where his dad attacked a gay Disney executive who had given him a congratulatory hug."

Jeffrey and his wife Shayna Saide split when Shia was three years old. Evicted from the Echo Park flat when Shia was nine, Shayna moved to Tujunga, the biker gang capital of San Fernando Valley. Worried for their safety, Jeffrey asked biker neighbor Dave to keep an eye on Shia and her mother. But Shayna got raped in her own home, which Shia overheard. “I froze,” he told Esquire magazine. “The man ran out, and my mum ran after him. “Dave came running over. I remember he had a crossbow.” The man was never caught.

However, today, Shia has reportedly been accused of sexual harassment himself. In a detailed statement via Variety, FKA Twigs has accused Shia saying, “Shia LaBeouf hurts women. He uses them. He abuses them, both physically and mentally. He is dangerous. For too long, LaBeouf has sought to excuse his reprehensible actions as the eccentricities of a free-thinking ‘artist.’ Even though his history of violent behavior was well-documented, many in the media have treated LaBeouf as a harmless figure of fun, which has helped enable him to perpetuate his cycle of abuse of women over the years. There is nothing funny about the exploitation of and battering of women.”

Twigs has accused LaBeouf of knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease. Calling him "dangerous", she has also demanded a trial by jury on Friday, December 11. 

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