OLIVIER MARTINEZ ACCUSES HALLE BERRY OF ABUSING THEIR SON AS CUSTODY BATTLE ESCALATES

The custody dispute between Halle Berry and her ex-husband Olivier Martinez has entered a more serious phase after the French actor filed for a temporary restraining order against the actress while accusing her of abusing their son, Maceo. According to court documents filed with the Superior Court of California, Martinez claims Berry “physically abused our son, Maceo, by jumping on him, putting her hands around his neck, and choking him,” while also saying that he suffered “emotional and mental distress due to physical abuse” involving their 13-year-old son. Martinez is seeking full custody of Maceo. The allegations remain part of an ongoing legal dispute between the former couple, while Berry has strongly rejected her ex-husband’s characterization of events.

According to the restraining-order petition, the incident Martinez considers the most serious allegedly occurred on September 26. The actor claims that Maceo placed a “frantic” call to him, pleading to be picked up from his mother’s home. Martinez says Berry initially refused to let him take their son and that her fiancé, musician Van Hunt, was also present at the house at the time. When Martinez eventually arrived, he alleges that Hunt had “a shocked look on his face and did not respond” to his questions. These details come from Martinez’s account in the court filing and do not constitute a court finding about what actually happened inside Berry’s home.

Martinez then offered his account of what allegedly triggered the confrontation. According to the filing, Maceo told his father that the argument began after Berry told him he looked “stupid” and like “such an idiot” for playing a game that required virtual-reality goggles. Martinez alleges that while Berry had her hands around their son’s neck, she shouted, “Who is dominant now?! Who is dominant?” The actor also claims this was not an isolated incident, describing it as “the latest incident of abuse,” while alleging that there had been other instances involving what he characterized as “verbal and emotional abuse from Petitioner to me.”

Martinez’s attorney, Patrick Baghdaserians, said his client was acting with the intention of protecting Maceo. He said Martinez was “solely motivated to protect the minor child” and hoped that “the opposing party gets the help she desperately needs.” In another statement, Baghdaserians emphasized that his client’s primary concern was “the health, welfare and the safety of the minor child,” describing Martinez as “a loving parent” who was trying to do what was best for his son. His legal team has framed the dispute as a matter of protecting Maceo amid a co-parenting relationship that has faced difficulties for years.

Berry’s side has offered a sharply different account. Her attorney, Marina Beck, described Martinez’s filing as “entirely meritless and deliberately misleading” and accused the actor of repeatedly having “violated court orders and interfered with therapeutic and educational interventions” involving Maceo. Beck also alleged that Martinez had previously faced legal sanctions over conduct connected to his obligations. In a statement to the media, she described him as “erratic” and “possessive,” adding: “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.”

The latest developments did not emerge in isolation. Berry and Martinez have spent years disagreeing over how to raise their son. In 2024, the former couple agreed to participate in “co-parenting therapy” with a professional in an effort to “resolve disputes and conflicts between them in an effort to successfully co-parent” Maceo. Under the agreement, each parent was initially expected to meet separately with the therapist before participating in at least six joint sessions. Van Hunt was also permitted to participate in the joint sessions. Only months later, however, Berry brought the matter before a judge, accusing Martinez of failing to continue with the arrangement.

In that filing, Berry alleged that Martinez had “unilaterally terminated” the therapy sessions without informing either her or the therapist. She accused her former husband of having “chosen to repeatedly violate agreements and court orders with careless regard,” arguing that his conduct was affecting Maceo and making an already strained relationship between the parents even more difficult to manage. A judge declined Berry’s request for emergency intervention at the time, finding that there were no “exigent circumstances” that would justify treating the matter as an immediate emergency.

The dispute over custody of Maceo had actually begun long before the latest allegations. Berry and Martinez met while working in Hollywood, married in 2013 and welcomed their son in October of that year. They announced their separation in 2015 and finalized their divorce in August 2023, nearly eight years after the legal process began. Their final agreement granted both parents joint legal custody of Maceo. Berry was ordered to pay Martinez $8,000 per month in child support, along with 4.3 percent of any income she received above $2 million annually. She was also responsible for the cost of Maceo’s private-school tuition, uniforms, school supplies and extracurricular educational expenses.

The lengthy divorce process became one of the most complicated periods of Berry’s personal life. In 2024, the actress also sought sole legal custody of Maceo, arguing that Martinez had an “oppositional, unmoving” parenting style that negatively affected the boy’s educational and behavioral challenges. Court documents at the time referred to Maceo’s educational difficulties, including ADHD, specific learning disorders and mild dyslexia. Martinez disputed Berry’s characterization of his parenting. The disagreements demonstrated that the conflict between the former couple was not centered on a single incident but had continued over a number of years.

By October 1, 2026, a Los Angeles County judge had granted part of Martinez’s request for a temporary protective order. The order temporarily modified Berry’s visitation schedule with Maceo rather than cutting off contact between mother and son altogether. According to the decision cited by PEOPLE, Berry was permitted to spend unsupervised time with Maceo on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., as well as Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The judge also declined to grant Martinez’s request for Berry to undergo sobriety monitoring, finding that there was not enough information to support that request. A further hearing was scheduled for October 16 to determine whether the temporary order would remain in place.

As the legal battle continued, several text messages between Berry and Martinez also became part of the court record. Following the confrontation described by Martinez, Berry allegedly messaged her former husband about Maceo wanting to leave the house early. In one message, she wrote: “No I'm not ok with it. He wants to fight his mother?? What kind of kid are we raising.” In another, she said: “As a father ask him what kind of kid is he,” before emphasizing: “I'm his mother?” Berry also wrote that Maceo “had no respect for his mother” and expressed frustration that she felt she had little say in certain matters. The messages have become part of the custody dispute, but they do not independently establish all of the allegations made by Martinez.

The following day, Berry continued messaging Martinez to say that she wanted to speak with their son. According to the documents cited by PEOPLE, she wrote: “Oliver, I've reached out to Maceo and asked to speak with him. I know you very much think he makes his own decisions but I would really appreciate it if you would encourage him to speak with me today.” She later added: “I feel terrible about what happened last night as I know he does as well.” The emergence of the messages has brought an intensely private family conflict further into public view, while both sides continue to offer sharply different interpretations of the relationship between the parents and their son.

For Berry, the family dispute is unfolding alongside a decades-long film career. She remains one of the most prominent American actresses of her generation, with credits including the X-Men franchise, Die Another Day, Cloud Atlas and numerous other film projects. In 2002, Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball, becoming the first Black woman to win the Oscar in that category. The achievement came after years of establishing herself in an industry where actresses of color were often given fewer opportunities and narrower roles.

Berry’s romantic life has also repeatedly attracted media attention. Before Martinez, she was married to baseball player David Justice and singer Eric Benét. She later had a relationship with model Gabriel Aubry, the father of her first child, Nahla. Berry and Aubry welcomed Nahla in 2008, before the actress entered her marriage to Martinez. After separating from Martinez, Berry said she spent around three years away from dating, describing the period as a “sabbatical to understand me,” during which she focused on therapy, reading, traveling and meditation.

In recent years, Berry has built another chapter of her personal life with musician Van Hunt. The couple went public with their relationship in 2020, and Berry has previously spoken about Maceo’s positive reaction to Hunt. In early 2026, she confirmed that she and Hunt were engaged after nearly six years together. Berry said she felt Hunt was “the one,” although the couple has not announced a wedding date. Their relationship has developed alongside Berry’s continuing legal disputes with Martinez, leaving her family life under considerable public scrutiny.

Martinez, meanwhile, had an established career of his own long before becoming Berry’s former husband. The French actor became known through both French and international cinema, received a César Award and appeared in a number of Hollywood productions. His marriage to Berry brought him into the orbit of one of America’s most recognizable movie stars, but after their separation, much of the public attention surrounding Martinez has centered on the custody dispute involving their son. Court records over the years show that both parents have sought judicial intervention over disagreements concerning Maceo’s upbringing.

The most significant aspect of the current dispute is that the conflict has moved beyond disagreements over parenting methods into allegations directly concerning the safety of a child. Martinez claims there have been “other instances of abuse over the course of the last few years,” including conduct he describes as physical abuse toward Maceo as well as emotionally distressing words and behavior directed toward himself. He also alleges that Berry once referred to him as “a white bitch trying to rob a Black woman” during a dispute over child support, before asking Maceo, “How do you feel about that as a Black man?” Berry has not confirmed these allegations, and her attorney has rejected Martinez’s characterization of the situation.

Martinez also claims that the latest incident was not the first time Berry had physically acted toward their son. According to his account in the filing, both Maceo and Berry had previously acknowledged incidents that Berry characterized as “just joking or playing with him.” Martinez says the alleged behavior eventually led Maceo to tell him: “The next time she does that, I’m going to kick her ass.” This remains an allegation presented in a request for a protective order and must be evaluated through the legal process rather than treated as an independent finding about Berry’s conduct.

Berry’s side, meanwhile, continues to maintain that her focus is Maceo’s best interests and that Martinez is presenting the events in a misleading manner. What has been established at this stage is that the former couple remain locked in a prolonged custody dispute, that a judge has issued a temporary protective order with certain restrictions on Berry’s visitation schedule, and that another hearing is scheduled to determine the next legal steps.

For Berry, the latest development is particularly sensitive because she has spent years trying to keep her children’s lives away from the spotlight. The actress rarely shares extensive details about Nahla and Maceo on social media, even though she has spoken publicly about the importance of motherhood. For Martinez, the current dispute is no longer simply a disagreement between two former spouses. It has become a court matter involving a request to alter the existing custody arrangement and allegations concerning their son’s well-being.

The current case therefore needs to be viewed against the broader legal history between Berry and Martinez rather than through the lens of a single restraining-order filing. From a marriage that lasted only two years, to nearly eight years of divorce proceedings, a joint-custody agreement, disagreements over therapy and Maceo’s education, and now serious allegations of abuse, the relationship between Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez has evolved into an increasingly complicated legal battle. As the court continues to review the filings and accounts presented by both sides, the central issue remains Maceo’s welfare and safety, while the specific allegations of abuse will have to be addressed through the next stages of the legal proceedings.