Halle Berry custody tensions spilled onto Instagram on Monday when the actress reposted a quote to her Story that read, “If kids disrespect their mom, the root cause often traces back to their relationship with the father.”
She shared it hours after leaving court, where her 18 year old daughter Nahla Aubry and her fiancé, musician Van Hunt, testified in her fight with former husband Olivier Martinez over their 13 year old son, Maceo. Berry did not add a caption. She did not tag anyone. She let the quote sit on its own while her lawyers headed into closing arguments.
Those arguments began Monday afternoon behind closed doors at Los Angeles Superior Court and continue today, with a ruling expected before the end of the week.
The Halle Berry custody case started in early October. Martinez accused Berry of choking Maceo during an altercation at her home on September 26, which he said began over a virtual reality headset. He claimed Maceo reached out to him afterward and begged to be picked up. On October 1, a judge granted Martinez a temporary restraining order limiting Berry’s time with Maceo and gave him temporary primary custody while the case plays out. Martinez is now asking for sole legal and physical custody.
Berry has denied the allegations from day one. She has said she and Maceo were roughhousing, not fighting, and stated in a court filing, “I have never physically, emotionally, or otherwise abused Maceo.” No finding has established that she harmed her son.
The quote she shared echoes what she has been arguing in court. Berry has told the judge that Maceo comes back from time with his father “angry and combative,” and she asked the court not to give substantial weight to his testimony, describing him as a “coached and manipulated child.”
Maceo testified for nearly four hours behind closed doors on October 19 and was seen chatting comfortably with his father during the lunch break. Berry took the stand herself last Thursday to defend herself against the claims.
Nahla has been in her mother’s corner throughout the Halle Berry custody fight. In a sworn statement filed earlier this month, she said she has lived with Maceo for most of his life and has never seen her mother act violently toward anyone. She also recalled watching Martinez beat up her father, Gabriel Aubry, in their driveway when she was little. Martinez’s attorney, Patrick Baghdaserians, has called his client “a great, loving father” who only wants the best for his son.
Berry is not trying to cut Martinez out of Maceo’s life. She wants the restraining order lifted and the 50/50 arrangement the two shared before September restored, along with sole legal custody over Maceo’s education and medical care.
Berry and Martinez met in 2010 on the set of “Dark Tide,” married in 2013 and split in 2015. Their custody arrangement held for years before this fall, and the judge’s ruling will decide what it looks like from here.
