Los Angeles: Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva says she feared he might kill her during a fight they had earlier this year.
Giving her first public account of an argument last January, that turned violent, the Russian-born musician accused the Braveheart star of hitting and trying to choke her. She said he had a gun on him throughout the fight.
"I was scared for my life and my daughter's," she told People magazine in a story published on Wednesday. "I thought he would kill me."
Grigorieva also made it clear that it was she who had leaked the infamous tapes of the actor in a series of racist and misogynistic rants. The tapes were leaked to celebrity website RadarOnline.com, but nobody knows where they came from. The recordings were made a month after the couple fought.
Gibson's representatives refused to comment on the People story.
Grigorieva did not report the alleged abuse to authorities until months later, after the couple had broken up and became embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over their infant daughter.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has completed an investigation into Grigorieva's domestic violence claims. They are also watching Grigorieva’s after Gibson claimed she tried to blackmail him.
Grigorieva, who is living in a home provided by the actor, said she didn't immediately report the violence partly because she didn't want to humiliate him. But she told the magazine that she’s now fighting him for custody of her daughter. "I'm standing up to a bully who is very rich and famous," she said, adding that she hopes her daughter, who turns one later this month, will one day forgive him.
