Olivier Martinez denied storming out of a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday during a hearing involving his ex-wife, Halle Berry. His attorney said the actor had simply stepped out to use the restroom.
Martinez’s attorney, Patrick Baghdaserians, told TMZ on Wednesday that his client had requested a break. The judge granted three minutes before the hearing resumed.
Earlier this month, Martinez, 60, secured a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Berry, also 60, after accusing her of physically abusing their 13-year-old son, Maceo. He alleged that Berry “jump[ed] on him and chok[ed] him” during a September 26 incident. Berry has denied the allegations.
Baghdaserians said Martinez was pleased with the case’s progress as the court heard testimony from several witnesses, including Maceo and an administrator from his school. The hearing has been closed to the public while Maceo testifies.
The statement from Martinez’s team came in the wake of a Page Six report that Martinez appeared ‘agitated and distressed’ as he made his way out of the courtroom Tuesday.
According to the report, Martinez was heard using profanity during an animated conversation with his attorney before leaving for the restroom.
Our News Outlet has contacted representatives for both Berry and Martinez for comment but has not received responses.
Olivier Martinez denied storming out of a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday, with his attorney saying the judge had granted him a brief bathroom break
Baghdaserians previously told Our News Outlet that Martinez’s legal team was “pleased with the court’s ruling” allowing Maceo to testify, adding, “We believe it was necessary.”
Berry and Martinez both testified Wednesday, while Berry’s boyfriend, Van Hunt, 56, and her daughter, Nahla Aubry, 18, were also scheduled to take the stand, according to TMZ.
In a filing submitted last week to Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by Our News Outlet, Berry accused Martinez of repeatedly involving himself in disputes over Maceo’s schooling and therapy, which she said had obstructed progress in both areas.
Berry also told the court that Martinez had inappropriately drawn Maceo into their ongoing custody dispute and undermined her efforts to support the teenager, according to the filing.
She asked the court to grant her “sole legal custody over matters relating to Maceo’s education, healthcare, and mental-health treatment” and to extend her “tie-breaking authority indefinitely.”
Berry said those measures were needed “so that necessary interventions can be implemented without continued delay, conflict, and harm to the child,” according to the filing.
Berry’s attorneys argued that the case has centered on Martinez’s alleged use of “manipulation, alienation, and litigation” to block necessary interventions for Maceo and circumvent court orders.
Her legal team maintained that the claims were not simply Berry’s “characterization of events,” asserting that Martinez’s alleged pattern of conduct had been supported by judicial findings, court orders, and sanctions.
The Oscar-winning actress was photographed outside a Los Angeles courthouse on Wednesday
Martinez and Berry were photographed together at a 2014 event in Los Angeles
Berry further claimed in the filing that Maceo’s behavioral problems at school had “significantly escalated” since the temporary restraining order was issued earlier this month.
She cited letters from school administrators stating that Maceo had become “increasingly oppositional, defiant, and disrespectful toward both peers and authority figures.”
Berry said school officials also reported that Maceo had become more disruptive, harassed a younger student, used inappropriate language, thrown objects at classmates, received a week of detention, and unilaterally announced that he was switching schools.
Berry said in the legal filing that, with Martinez’s encouragement, Maceo has been reinforced to believe he has a say in ‘decisions regarding his education, health, extracurricular activities, and general welfare.’
In addition to asking for sole custody, Berry has requested the court authorize an arrangement in which Maceo would attend therapy sessions for a year, ‘both individual and conjoint,’ with a therapist of her choosing.
Berry in the legal filing requested that both parties ‘be ordered to forthwith communicate exclusively via Our Family Wizard,’ a co-parenting app. She asked the court for conditions in which each party would check the app once a day, and send no more than one message daily in cases of no emergency.
Berry and Martinez had been married from 2013 to 2015, finalizing their split in 2023.
