Halle Berry is firing back at the most serious allegations yet in her years long custody conflict with Olivier Martinez, denying that she abused their son as both parents seek major changes to how the teenager is raised.
The latest development in the Halle Berry custody battle arrived after Martinez accused the Oscar winner of physically attacking their son, Maceo, during a September 26 confrontation. According to PEOPLE, Berry responded in an October court declaration by flatly rejecting the accusation.
“I have never physically, emotionally, or otherwise abused Maceo. I am a victim of domestic violence, and I help victims of domestic violence,” Berry wrote.
Berry’s response is significant because the dispute has quickly moved beyond the disagreements over schooling, therapy, and parenting decisions that have defined much of the former couple’s recent conflict. Martinez filed for a restraining order after alleging that Berry jumped on Maceo, grabbed him around the neck, and choked him. Martinez has also asked for sole custody.
Berry gives a different account. According to PEOPLE, she said an interaction that began as playful roughhousing escalated after Maceo became upset. She denied choking him or restricting his breathing and submitted video and text evidence that she argues undercuts Martinez’s description of what happened.
A Los Angeles County judge granted Martinez temporary protection on October 1 while keeping some contact between Berry and Maceo in place. The temporary order says Berry’s parenting time was restricted ahead of an October 16 hearing, while Martinez’s request for sobriety monitoring was denied because the court found “insufficient information.”
The abuse allegations surfaced while Berry was already trying to revive an earlier version of their custody agreement. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Berry wants the former 50/50 arrangement restored along with her previous tie-breaking authority on certain decisions involving Maceo.
Her filing paints the problem as much bigger than scheduling.
“The fourth concern is Olivier’s continued attempts to align Maceo with him and against me in many areas of our child’s life and activities, which causes Maceo to be angry with me about private issues relating to Maceo which Olivier and I were discussing at the time,” Berry wrote.
Berry claims the tension follows Maceo between households.
“When Maceo would come home from his custodial time with Olivier, he would be angry and combative. It took Maceo 2-3 days to acclimate to being at home, and when he would go back to Olivier, the cycle would start all over again,” she alleged. “I also perceived Maceo to repeat disputes that Olivier and I discuss in private and take Olivier’s side/position in that dispute.”
She also alleged that disagreements between the parents were reaching their son before those disagreements had actually been resolved.
“If the dispute related to a decision regarding Maceo (for example, about soccer, school, or therapy), Maceo knew about it before Olivier and I reached a decision with respect to a particular issue and would tell me what he and Olivier are going to do (without my input) completely disregarding my authority as his mother,” Berry wrote.
Education and mental health care have become another major fault line in the Halle Berry custody dispute. Berry alleges that Martinez resisted interventions she believed their son needed.
“[Martinez’s] refusal to allow early interventions have caused Maceo to fall further behind in school, caused Maceo’s acting out behaviors to worsen, and caused further damage to Maceo’s and [Berry’s] relationship,” the documents claim.
Berry also said Martinez previously argued that Maceo was “old enough” to make certain choices for himself.
“While I am attuned to Maceo’s thoughts and feelings and encourage an open dialogue, I do not agree that a ten-year-old should be permitted to make decisions regarding his education, health, extracurricular activities, and general welfare,” Berry wrote. “Therapy with [his doctor] has improved Maceo’s behavior at home and with me. Sadly, the passage of time and Court orders have not improved or changed Olivier.”
The conflict over therapy did not begin this month. Berry and Martinez agreed in May 2024 to work with a parenting coach to “resolve disputes and conflicts between them in an effort to successfully co-parent” Maceo. Berry later accused Martinez of abandoning the process. A judge denied her emergency request to force his participation at that stage, finding there was no urgent circumstance requiring immediate intervention.
Berry has since accused Martinez of trying to shape how professionals around Maceo perceive her.
“The seventh concern is Olivier’s active attempts to influence Maceo’s teachers and therapist to view me as a risk to our child by communicating false stories about my relationship with Maceo through Maceo or third parties,” she wrote.
Berry says Martinez’s discomfort with her relationship with Van Hunt has also complicated efforts to build a functioning family environment.
“The eighth concern is Olivier’s continued refusal to accept my relationship with Van, who plays an important role in Maceo’s life. Olivier’s lack of acceptance of Van has resulted in Olivier refusing to permit Maceo to work in a family therapy setting with me and Van as a means to continue to create a healthy environment for our son within the structure of a blended family,” Berry wrote.
Martinez strongly disputes Berry’s portrayal of the situation. In the filing underlying his request for greater custody, he alleged a history of abuse rather than a single September incident.
“While the September 26, 2026, incident in which Petitioner choked our son is the latest incident of abuse, I contend that there have been other instances of abuse over the course of the last few years,” Martinez alleged. “These other incidents involve additional physical attacks against our son, as well as verbal and emotional abuse from Petitioner to me.”
Those accusations remain allegations, and Berry denies abusing Maceo.
The current courtroom fight is far removed from how Berry and Martinez began. According to contemporaneous reporting from CBS News, they became romantically involved after working together on “Dark Tide.” Martinez publicly confirmed their engagement in 2012. CBS later reported that the couple married in France in July 2013 and welcomed Maceo that October.
Their marriage unraveled two years later. When Berry and Martinez announced their split in October 2015, CBS News reported that both had emphasized their son while presenting the breakup as respectful.
“It is with a heavy heart that we have come to the decision to divorce,” they said. “We move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus of what is best for our son. We wish each other nothing but happiness in life, and we hope that you respect our and, most importantly, our children’s privacy as we go through this difficult period.”
The legal ending took much longer than the marriage itself. The divorce was not finalized until August 2023, nearly eight years after the split. The settlement provided for joint legal custody and required Berry to pay Martinez $8,000 per month in child support, along with “4.3% of any income she receives above $2,000,000.” She also assumed responsibility for private school and certain extracurricular costs.
What started as a breakup centered publicly on mutual respect has since developed into competing claims about parenting, therapy, education, influence, and now physical safety. The October 16 hearing could determine whether the temporary restrictions remain in place and how much of the custody structure Berry is trying to reclaim survives the latest escalation.
