Halle Berry is battling her ex for control of their teenage son after he accused her of choking the boy, and longtime sources say her rage can spin out of control.
Olivier Martinez has asked a Los Angeles court for sole legal custody and a domestic violence restraining order against the Oscar-winning actress, accusing her of choking and physically abusing their son, Maceo, during a Sept. 26 confrontation at her Los Angeles home. Fox News reported that Martinez was granted a temporary restraining order and alleged in court papers that Berry jumped on the boy, put her hands around his neck, and choked him, along with other claimed incidents over the prior year and a half.
Berry and her legal team call the filing meritless. Their son remains at the center of a fast-moving Los Angeles Superior Court fight that already includes temporary custody for Martinez, a judge’s ruling that the teenager may testify, and a formal response from Berry seeking sole legal authority over major decisions in the boy’s life.
Court papers seen by Page Six describe the alleged Sept. 26 clash as starting over virtual reality goggles. Martinez claimed Berry called Maceo “such an idiot” for playing a game on the headset before the physical abuse he described. Details of the other alleged incidents across the past year and a half have not been laid out in full in the public reporting.
Berry’s attorney, Marina Beck, did not say much in response to the restraining-order push.
"To say this filing is entirely meritless and deliberately misleading would be an understatement."
Beck also pointed to Martinez’s own record, saying he has been legally sanctioned for violating court orders. In her formal response filed Wednesday, Berry alleged Martinez is responsible for Maceo’s recent behavioral problems at school and asked the court to restore her sole legal custody, or, failing that, final say over education, medical care, and mental health if the parents cannot agree after 72 hours.
Her filing included declarations from fiancé Van Hunt, daughter Nahla, and school staff. Martinez currently holds temporary custody. Berry still retains tie-breaking rights on decisions and overnight physical custody under the arrangement described in coverage of the case. The next hearing was set for the following Monday.
High-profile split cases often harden once lawyers start trading filings, a pattern also visible when Cherelle Griner sought court-ordered support after a divorce case landed in public view.
Nahla, Berry’s 18-year-old daughter with former partner Gabriel Aubry, filed a declaration in Los Angeles Superior Court supporting her mother and rejecting the abuse claims against Maceo.
"I have never seen my mom hit, slap, choke, grab, or physically abuse Maceo in any way."
She went further on the specific choking allegation.
"I have never seen my mom place her hands around Maceo’s neck, put him in a chokehold, restrict his breathing, or engage in any conduct remotely resembling the allegations that have been made against her."
Nahla described Berry as a “loving and devoted parent” who “can be strict when necessary,” and said she “never observed anything abusive about her parenting.” She also called her mother “warm, supportive and deeply involved in our lives,” while expressing shock at the claims and love for her brother.
An LA judge ruled this week that the teenager at the center of the dispute can testify. That raises the stakes for both parents as the court weighs competing stories about what happened in the home and what arrangement serves the child.
Page Six spoke with a source who has known Berry for many years and described sudden shifts in her temperament, while stopping short of saying those swings prove the abuse claims.
"Halle can be the loveliest human being you’ve ever met, then within seconds she’ll fly into a rage."
The same source said many people around her have seen what the source called a “dysregulation to her moods,” and that “the polarity of her moods are well known among her friends.” The source added, “I don’t think anyone in her life is immune to the mood swings,” and later said custody fights “enrage Halle.”
On the money and control pressures that often inflame these cases, the source claimed both of the men tied to her highest-profile parenting disputes have leaned on her financially:
"They have both relied on her to support them, so it’s understandable that she would get upset, but her rage is sometimes out of control."
The source also said Martinez “has his own issues,” cautioned that mood problems would not by themselves make Berry “guilty of what she’s being accused of,” and voiced hope the legal fight “doesn’t get too messy for the sake of everyone involved.” A separate longtime friend has previously said Berry can appear “irrational.” Another insider described witnessing “extreme kindness and then extreme bile and rage within minutes that would take your breath away.”
Those characterizations are anonymous and unproven. They sit beside sworn denials from Nahla and Berry’s legal team, and beside Martinez’s still-unadjudicated court claims. Celebrity breakups repeatedly show how quickly private conflict becomes a public record, including when Scott Wolf and his estranged wife ended a reconciliation attempt and moved forward with divorce.
Berry, 60, has been married three times, to former baseball player David Justice, singer-songwriter Eric Benét, and Martinez, 60. She met Martinez on the set of the film “Dark Tide” in 2010. They married in July 2013 at a chateau in Vallery, France, and Maceo was born about three months later. The couple announced their separation in fall 2015. The divorce took roughly eight years and was finalized in August 2023.
Under the 2023 terms, Berry was ordered to pay Martinez $8,000 a month in child support, plus 4.3% of any income above $2 million a year, and to cover tuition, health insurance, extracurriculars, and therapy. Years earlier, after her split from model Gabriel Aubry, Nahla’s father, a 2014 order required her to pay Aubry $16,000 a month in child support, private-school tuition, $115,000 in retroactive support, and $300,000 in his attorney fees.
Money fights are only part of the record. On Thanksgiving 2012, Aubry and Martinez got into a physical confrontation outside Berry’s home. Aubry suffered a broken rib, severe facial bruising, and a possible head injury; Martinez had hand and neck injuries. Aubry was arrested on a misdemeanor battery count. Both men obtained temporary restraining orders. The legal issues were settled days later, and neither was charged.
In later 2014, Berry took Aubry to court alleging he dyed and straightened Nahla’s hair so she would not “look so Black.” Aubry denied it. Attempts to reverse course after a split sometimes collapse under the same pressures, much as Alan Ritchson and his wife tried to save their marriage months after a divorce filing and could not make it work.
Berry’s legal history also includes a February 2000 hit-and-run on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. She ran a red light, crashed into a car driven by Hetal Raythatha, left the scene before police arrived, and later said she had amnesia about the crash. Raythatha suffered a broken wrist and other injuries. Investigators found no evidence Berry was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor for leaving the scene. In May 2000 she pleaded no contest and received three years of probation, a $13,500 fine, and 200 hours of community service. A civil negligence case settled in May 2001.
On a film set in 2003, while making “Gothika,” Robert Downey Jr. accidentally broke her arm. A source later said Berry stayed furious for years and felt his apology was insincere. None of that history decides the current custody claims. It does show how often courts, settlements, and private grievances have followed her family life into public view.
Even nine-figure divorce wars overseas end with a judge’s order and two sides who still have to live with the result, as when a South Korean AI billionaire was ordered to pay $645 million after a decade-long case.
TMZ reported Friday that Berry listed her Los Angeles home for nearly $12 million while the custody fight was unfolding. Earlier this year, in an interview with Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones, Berry said she felt “stronger, smarter, wiser, more myself, more in control,” and called herself “the best version of myself at this time in my life.”
She continues professional work beyond acting, including Respin, her wellness platform focused on women’s health and menopause, and an Apple Original Films project tied to the novel “The President Is Missing.” Public branding around strength and control now sits beside sealed family-court allegations her team calls false and her ex wants a judge to treat as grounds for sole custody.
Famous marriages can end in a few hard lines and years of fallout, a reminder underscored when Gisele Bündchen shut down her marriage to Tom Brady in blunt terms that became part of the story’s aftermath.
The core dispute remains unresolved in the reporting: Martinez alleges choking and a pattern of abuse; Berry’s counsel calls the case deliberately misleading; Nahla swears she never saw anything like the conduct described; anonymous acquaintances describe volatile moods without claiming proof of the charged acts; and a Los Angeles judge has opened the door for Maceo to speak.
No public finding in the available record has yet sustained or rejected the Sept. 26 allegation on the merits. Temporary orders, declarations, and dueling custody requests are not the same thing as a final judgment. Until the court weighs the testimony and papers, the public is left with serious claims, firm denials, and a teenager caught between two parents who no longer share a household or a story.
When adults turn a child’s home into a courtroom exhibit, the cleanest standard is still the simplest one: protect the kid first, prove the claims with evidence, and stop treating custody like another publicity round.