By NICK CHILES
The Thanksgiving Day throwdown that occurred between the men in Halle Berry’s life proves one thing above all else: If given half a chance, celebrities can act as stupid as the rest of us.
There was just something extremely run-of-the-mill and less than fabulous about these two pretty boys coming to blows at Halle’s front door. Yes, Olivier may be a international hearththrob and Gabriel may be a world famous runway and print model, but what happened in the driveway of Berry’s home in Los Angeles was some real world, regular dude stuff. Very stupid, but very much of the world that you and I inhabit—almost enough to make you think for just a second that maybe the rich and extraordinarily famous are like the rest of us after all. But then you look at a picture of the three adults involved, with their perfect faces, and you reconsider.
Actually, Aubry’s face isn’t looking so pretty these days. Not after Martinez busted up his mug and broke one of his ribs. Look at the picture. It’s going to be a minute before Aubry’s on another Vogue cover.
While Aubry has been portrayed as the bad guy in most of the Halle Berry stories over the past couple of years—not helping his case at all when he requested Berry pay him $20,000 a month in support—I can feel his pain on this one. After all, we’re talking about his interactions with a dude who is engaged to his fabulous ex-girlfriend, helping to raise his daughter, and trying to bring her halfway across the world to his native country of France, where she would probably be much more likely to grow up a relative stranger to her dad, whose visiting time would plummet. Who among us wouldn’t be ready to throw some bows every time this Olivier guy came within our sight?
And then there is this: Aubry claims that Martinez threatened him at a school event they were attending the day before Thanksgiving if he didn’t let them take Nahla to France to live. This was after a judge ruled on Nov. 9 that Berry couldn’t move the child to France, where she wanted to go because France has stronger laws protecting celebrities from the paparazzi.
And Aubry additionally claims that Martinez told him, “You cost us $3 million,” while he punched and kicked him in the driveway of Berry’s home. Then the hot-headed French native, whose father is Spanish and mother is French, told him to tell the judge in the child custody case “you’re going to Paris or I’m going to kill you.” Martinez then allegedly threatened to kill him unless he told police that he said he initiated the altercation.
Aubry was arrested after his beatdown and now Berry is seeking a three-year restraining order against him, asking that he be ordered to stay 100 yards from her daughter and her fiancé. Berry alleged Aubry made “verbal threats, caused physical harm to the child’s mother and Martinez.”
This has gotten incredibly nasty, with the courts being used as a battering ram by both sides to do as much damage as possible. But how are you going to keep the little girl away from her dad for three years because he got into a fight with your new man? From everything I’ve read, I’m not at all surprised that Aubry took a swing at Martinez. It wasn’t smart, but it’s understandable.
I think the Academy Award-winning actress needs to take a little bit of the responsibility for the violence that ensued. Of course these guys need to act like grownups, but knowing that her fiance is a hothead, why would you put him in charge of handling the hand-off of the child? He wants to bring the girl back to his home country in Europe and the girl’s father understandably doesn’t want him to. So there is not going to be a lot of good will between these two guys.
Mom, you need to handle your business. Hooking up with a new guy who clearly has a fondness for issuing threats and using his fists is no reason to keep a child from her father.
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Denene Millner
Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.
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So sad and what a hot mess. At least her father wants to help raise her and have her around. Custody issues/battles are the worst!
This is a truly sad story. I’m praying for that child. Halle needs to leave Oliver and focus on raising her daughter. How is Nahla supposed to respect a man who beat her dad up? How will Nahla grow up not fearing that Oliver will beat her up like he did her dad? Too much for a child to have to endure. Do what’s best for the child and focus on her happiness and well being by exiting stage left.
This is truly sad and just plain messed up. Halle Berry is the problem here I think she is a very selfish mom and person. If she truly cared about her daughters well being and what is best for her she would not be trying to keep Nahla away from her father its just selfish and cruel and Halle really needs to take along hard look in the mirror and grow up you don’t keep a father and child apart ever.