Halle Berry's attorney branded Olivier Martinez's child-abuse claims meritless after he won a temporary restraining order and sought sole custody of their 12-year-old son.
Martinez secured the order Thursday and asked the court for sole custody, alleging physical and emotional abuse of their son Maceo, Fox News reported.
Berry’s lawyer answered within hours. She called the petition deliberately misleading, cited prior sanctions against Martinez, and said Berry would keep fighting for the boy’s best interests.
The dispute lands in a long, expensive custody fight that already produced a thick divorce judgment, fixed support terms, and an earlier sole-custody push by Berry herself.
People magazine obtained petition language in which Martinez said he suffered “emotional and mental distress due to physical abuse of our minor child, Maceo.”
The filing alleged Berry “physically abused our son, Maceo, by jumping on him, putting her hands around his neck, and choking him.”
Martinez tied the latest claim to September 26, 2026. He wrote that the episode was not isolated and that other physical attacks, plus verbal and emotional abuse aimed at him, had stacked up over several years.
He also claimed Berry told him he looked “so stupid” and shouted, “Who is dominant now?!” during the alleged incident. Those words appear only as his account.
Martinez said Maceo called him afterward. He further stated that Berry’s fiancé, Van Hunt, was at the home at the time. No independent confirmation of that scene appears in the reporting.
TMZ reported that Martinez was granted a temporary restraining order requiring Berry to stay 100 yards from him.
Under the order, she may see Maceo only during court-ordered visits, two days a week and every other weekend, until a hearing set for Oct. 16.
The former couple was also ordered into confidential mediation on custody.
Martinez’s petition asked that Berry not be under the influence and that she face sobriety testing before, during, and after any visits with their son.
None of the abuse claims have been proven in the public record provided. They stand as allegations in a sworn filing, now headed for a courtroom test.
Marina Beck, representing Berry, gave Fox News Digital a blunt assessment.
"To say this filing is entirely meritless and deliberately misleading would be an understatement. 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."
Beck did not stop at the paperwork. She framed the move as consistent with a longer pattern.
"In a way, today’s filing is not entirely unexpected from an individual with a well-documented history of erratic, possessive and violent behavior. Fortunately, 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."
Fox News Digital sought comment from Martinez’s representatives and received no immediate response.
The couple first filed for divorce in 2015 after two years of marriage. The split dragged on; the divorce was finalized in 2023, eight years after they parted.
A 33-page judgment set the baseline. Berry agreed to pay nearly $8,000 a month in child support. She also pays Martinez 4.3% on any income she makes above $2 million.
Berry covers private-school tuition, 100% of extracurricular costs, and health care. Martinez is required to take “reasonable action” to find employment and contribute for Maceo.
Parenting time was split during the week, with weekends alternating and holiday exceptions. Each parent gets one phone or video call with Maceo before bed, lasting less than 15 minutes. Both sides must refrain from talking badly about the other in front of the boy.
Those rules show a court already tried to wall the child off from adult score-settling. The new petition puts that arrangement back under pressure.
Two years before Martinez’s latest filing, Berry went to court for sole custody. She cited his “turbulent and detrimental behavior” toward educational and therapeutic interventions the boy needed.
Beck’s statement returns to that theme. She says judicial rulings already sanctioned Martinez for violating orders and interfering with help meant for Maceo.
The public file summarized here does not reprint those earlier rulings. It does show both parents have now accused the other of harming the child’s stability, first Berry, now Martinez.
Berry, an Oscar-winning actress, also has an 18-year-old daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry, with Gabriel Aubry. Maceo is her son with Martinez. The current fight centers on the 12-year-old and the temporary limits placed on Berry’s contact until mid-October.
The temporary order is not a final custody award. It sets distance and a short visitation schedule while the court prepares to hear evidence.
Mediation is confidential. The sobriety-testing request remains a petition demand, not a full trial finding. The choking allegation and the claimed history of other attacks remain Martinez’s sworn narrative, answered by Beck as baseless and already undercut by prior sanctions against him.
For now, a 12-year-old boy is the subject of dueling filings, a 100-yard stay-away rule, limited visits, and another round of lawyers arguing over who put him at risk.
Courts exist for exactly this kind of mess: separate proof from publicity, weigh both parents’ records, and put the child ahead of either adult’s storyline.
