A made-for-TV romance between an actor and his YouTube star spouse has devolved into a legal duel — over her claims that he was violent.
via: Complex
Page Six reports the celebrity couple, who split last year after tying the knot in October 2018, have traded lawsuits against each other. The legal drama dates back to July, when, a month before their break-up became official, Aki opened up about their relationship on an episode of her podcast Tell Me on a Sunday, where she claimed Gillespie physically abused and threatened her.
Referring to him only as her “husband,” Aki reportedly called Gillespie a “monster, abusive, narcissistic, arrogant, entitled asshole,” according to court documents obtained by Page Six.
Gillespie, a Broadway alum who later starred in the 2018 NBC drama Rise, responded in September with a lawsuit against his ex-wife that alleged her comments had damaged his reputation and cost him work in the process. He also denied ever being violent toward Aki.
Meanwhile, in her own Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed on Friday, Aki claims that it wasn’t until 2019 that she “began to realize that the man she married had concealed vicious personality traits from her.”
“Gillespie verbally harassed, pushed and shoved her, and at one point, abandoned her alone in a foreign country,” Page Six writes. “She claims he left their home early in the pandemic, returning without explanation months later. She locked herself in a bedroom to get away from him, according to the suit, and put out a cry for help, telling friends via Instagram that she feared for her safety.”
Gillespie’s attorney declined to comment on the lawsuits.
“It is my universal practice that I do not try my cases in the press,” attorney Richard Altman told Page Six. “Everything I have to say is in the court papers. Neither I nor my client will have any comment.”
Hopefully the truth comes out.
