ALL RISE by Steve Murphy

Sometimes standing up for yourself is messy

She’s the first Black female and the youngest ever winner of the NME’s much coveted ‘Godlike Genius’ award. She’s been nominated for a Grammy and her videos and songs have been viewed and streamed millions of times. So you could be forgiven for thinking that life’s been easy for the visionary artist and singer FKA twigs – but you’d be wrong.

It’s fair to say that since bursting onto the music scene 10 years ago the British born 34 year old has been through some truly testing times.

When she was dating teen heart throb Robert Pattinson, fans of the ‘Twilight’ film franchise targeted her with hurtful racial abuse; she’s undergone surgery to remove painful fibroids; and she’s set to take her ex-partner, actor and film maker, Shia LaBeouf, to court accusing him of physical, emotional and mental abuse that she says has left her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Commenting earlier this year on her NME award she remains upbeat, saying in a statement: “I am so proud to be the first black female artist to have been honoured, still baby-faced, and inspired as hell. Here’s to the next decade of making art and music.” But her spell binding career isn’t all she’s focused on. Even though she describes herself as a

private person she has opened up about things that matter to her.

Speaking on a recent edition of Louis Theroux’s ‘Grounded’ podcast twigs told of how she was targeted with vile racist abuse during her three year relationship with Robert Pattinson – the couple were engaged until their split in 2017 – saying that ‘people just called me the most hurtful and ignorant and horrible names on the planet.’

“He was their white Prince Charming and they considered he should be with someone white and blonde,” said twigs, “It’s essentially bullying and it does affect you psychologically.”

Similarly, as reported by the BBC, she’s spoken of her fear when she had six fibroid – non cancerous tumours removed from her womb via laparoscopic surgery saying she was “so scared”, and that her “confidence as a woman was knocked”.

She posted on Instagram that “the tumours were the size of two apples, three kiwis and a couple of strawberries – a fruit bowl of pain every day. The nurse said that the weight and size was like being six months pregnant.” In her post she paid tribute to others with the condition, labelling them “amazing warriors” who are “not alone”.

Her relationship with LaBeouf began the year after she beat her illness and it lasted just over a year. Twigs claims that during this time LaBeouf abused her physically, emotionally and mentally. For his part LeBeouf claims that “many of these allegations are not true”, but twigs is pursuing legal action against him and the case is set to be heard before a court next spring. Explaining why she made her allegations public,

FKA Twigs

the New York Times quotes twigs as saying that she’d, “like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency.”

And she told GQ Magazine that, “I just didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, and that trumped any way that I felt about what people may think about me now, positively or negatively. If I ever have children, I want them to know that I stood up for myself, and that’s important. And sometimes, standing up for yourself is messy.

“Sometimes it can cause more trauma, and sometimes it can be dividing. People don’t expect you to stand up for yourself, but I did and I’m proud of it, and what happened to me wasn’t right.”

And twigs has done more than just speak out against abuse; she has given her celebrity backing to ‘Sistah Space’ a charity that works with African heritage women and girls who’ve experienced domestic or sexual abuse or who have lost someone they loved to domestic violence. (See page 17).

Djanomi Headley, operations manager for Sistah Space is reported as saying that twigs’s endorsement has “created a huge snowball effect and gained us the necessary exposure to ensure that the voice and perspective of black women affected by domestic abuse were seen and heard”.

People don’t expect you to stand up for yourself, but I did and I’m proud of it.