Oksana Grigorieva also claimed that the stress led to the growth of a tumour in her brain.
Celebrities work hard to make their name in the industry, to get their identity embedded into the minds of the viewers. While some succeed to leave their legacy behind with their exceptional work, others are popular among the people for their behavior. Mel Gibson for one is known for his work as much as he's known for his court visits.
Before Rosalind Ross, who he seems very much in love with, there was a singer and songwriter named Oksana Grigorieva. The two met when Robyn, Gibson's then-wife of 30 years filed a divorce in 2009, reported People. The classical pianist admitted to her friend that she "truly loved Mel.” She was so head over heels for the actor that she even converted to Catholicism, “until she saw who he really was and what he was capable of.”
The love turned to horror for Grigorieva when she claimed that the actor abused her. In an interview with People, Grigorieva revealed the details about the argument during which he hit her while she was holding their baby. “I thought he would kill me,” she said.
The musician also spoke about his jealous rages, the suicide talks, and the time he wielded a gun on her. “I needed to document his threats,” Grigorieva said explaining why she decided to tape the actor's angry calls. Grigorieva said that on June 25, 2010, it wasn't just once that he had raised his hand on her, it was “more than once.” She claimed that on January 6, 2010, she ended up with a broken tooth and a knocked out veneer which caused a concussion.
Gibson did admit to slapping her, but he said that the reason was to stop her from “shaking [their baby] Lucia back and forth.” However, he denied claims of the event's details disclosed by his ex-wife.
“I slapped Oksana one time with an open hand in an attempt to bring her back to reality,” Gibson said, reported by TMZ. He continued, “I did not slap her hard. I was just trying to shock her so that she would stop screaming, continuing shaking Lucia back and forth.”
But all the domestic violence that Grigorieva had endured during her marriage left a deep impact on her mental health and she claimed that she suffered from PTSD.
In 2018, The Blast came out with a sensational report that Grigorieva had claimed in her new court filings that she had been "diagnosed with PTSD due to domestic violence and the protracted, expensive and difficult paternity battle I had to endure."
She also claimed that the stress she had to go through caused a tumor to grow in her brain. She said, "As a result of the stresses of litigation and bankruptcy, I was recently diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma and will need to go through treatments in the near future, with increased medical bills."
Grigorieva allegedly owed $108,887.24 to an accounting firm she had hired to conduct a forensic accounting during her divorce but claimed that she could not pay the amount because of her illness. The accounting firm, White, Zuckerman, Warsavsky, Luna & Hunt, had filed documents in order to request permission for the unpaid bills to be recovered.
Looking at the whole ordeal, Gibson was sentenced to three years of probation, community service, and counseling in 2011 after he pled no contest to one misdemeanor count of domestic violence dating back to January 6, 2010, incident. However, extortion charges were not filed against Grigorieva for the leaked audiotapes, reported The Los Angeles Times.
The custody agreement of 2011 reportedly stated that the musician would lose all her right to the remaining settlement money if she spoke about it in public and she did speak on The Howard Stern Show, reported People.
In the interview, Stern said, “Anyone who’s been through what you’ve been through with [Gibson], you got to be full of hope, because it’s the only way to be. You got to look ahead.” To which Grigorieva replied, “You know what? You have to embrace your experience and even – it doesn’t matter how painful it might be at the time, and that darker experience, learn from it, hopefully …”
Following the incident, Gibson became the face of domestic abuse, he was blacklisted from Hollywood and basically had no work left. He stayed away from the camera until his movie Hacksaw Ridge was released which wasn't appreciated by the masses due to the controversies attached to him.
When in an interview for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2016, he was asked if he believed he was past his troubles, he said, "Hey, we’ve all got troubles, all the time, every day, in some form or another. That’s life. It’s how you deal with them. You can’t let them get to you too much. I have a sense of ease, I think, which is good. Because you’ve got to be good to yourself, right? If you’re not good to yourself, it’s not going to radiate onto anyone else."
References:
https://people.com/celebrity/inside-mel-gibson-and-oksana-grigorievas-turbulent-romance/
https://people.com/celebrity/oksana-grigorieva-i-thought-mel-gibson-would-kill-me/
http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/tmz_documents/1114_mel_gibson_docs.pdf
https://theblast.com/mel-gibson-oksana-grigorieva-ptsd-tumor/
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/03/mel-gibson-guilty-plea-domestic-violence.html
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/mel-gibson-you-get-barking-mad-in-your-50s-20160802-gqiz5l.html
