Halle Berry’s ex-husband Olivier Martinez has been granted temporary primary custody of their son Maceo after accusing the actress of physically abusing the 12-year-old.
The grant comes after Martinez filed for a temporary restraining order against Berry on allegations she put her hands around Maceo’s neck and choked him on September 26.
Martinez was subsequently granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order which protects both himself and Maceo from Berry and requires her to stay 90 metres away from Martinez.
The order means Berry has temporarily lost custody 50/50 custody of Maceo, requiring her to only visit her child during court-ordered visitation two days a week and every other weekend until a hearing on October 16.
It comes after Page Six obtained documents in which Martinez accused Berry of choking and jumping on Maceo during an alleged dispute last month.
He claims her fiancé, Van Hunt, was present during the incident.
Martinez alleges that the argument between Berry and Maceo started when she told him that he looks “so stupid” and is “such an idiot” for playing a game with his virtual reality goggles.
“The situation escalated and Petitioner jumped on our son and started physically fighting with him,” he claims in the docs. “She grabbed Maceo by the neck and started choking him while shouting, ‘Who is dominant now?! Who is dominant?!’”
Martinez says a panicked Maceo called hm to pick him up after the alleged incident, and that he does not want to return to his mum’s house because he is “traumatised.”
Martinez alleges that Berry has been abusive towards their son on multiple occasions.
“Throughout the last year and a half, Ms Berry had wrestled Maceo to the ground and forced him to ‘tap out,” he claims in the docs.
He later claims that Berry has caused Maceo mental and emotional distress due to making racially charges statements. Back in 2023, he alleges that the Oscar winner told their son his dad is “a white b — h trying to rob a black woman” due to their child support issues.
“Ms. Berry then asked our son, ‘How do you feel about that as a black man?’” he claims.
Martinez states in the docs that he has “significant concerns” about Berry’s mental health, “as well as her alcohol abuse, which I believe have contributed to her abusive conduct.”
Martinez requested sole custody of Maceo, in addition to the restraining orders for him and his son.
Berry’s lawyer Marina Beck strongly denied the allegations in a media statement.
“To say this filing is entirely meritless and deliberately misleading would be an understatement,” the statement read.
“There is voluminous evidence, including numerous judicial rulings, that Olivier Martinez repeatedly violated court orders and interfered with necessary therapeutic and educational interventions to the detriment of his and Halle Berry’s minor son Maceo – misconduct for which Mr. Martinez has already been legally sanctioned.”
The statement continued: “In a way, today’s filing is not entirely unexpected from an individual with a well-documented history of erratic, possessive and violent behaviour.”
Berry and Martinez, both 60, were married for two years before splitting in October 2015. Their contentious divorce took eight years to finalise.
Back in September 2024, she claimed in a court filing that she’s spent over $200,000 trying to co-parent Maceo amid their bitter custody battle.
“I have done everything possible to work with Olivier, to communicate with him, and to engage him in the decision-making process regarding our son in an amicable way,” she wrote in court docs.
Berry argued that her ex had “refused to co-parent and communicate with me in a child-centred way” and that he instead had “been oppositional and unmovable on all major issues relating to Maceo.”
Berry is also a mum to daughter Nahla, 18, whom she shares with ex Gabriel Aubry.
This article first appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced here with permission.