We thought Dr. Dre’s divorce was ugly before, but now it seems the worst was yet to come…
This breakup has been contentious from the start, as Nicole Young sought extraordinary amounts of money from her ex, dragged up the names of his alleged mistresses, and accused the producer of abuse. Meanwhile, Dre had her investigated for embezzlement and dropped a track calling her a “greedy bitch.” There’s definitely no love lost in this relationship.
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Previously, Nicole had revealed multiple incidents where the music mogul had held a gun to her head, among other instances of domestic violence. Now, court documents obtained by The Blast detail yet more “incidents of domestic violence he perpetrated against me prior to‚ throughout our marriage,” according to her request for a restraining order.
Describing an example from 1999, she recalled:
“Andre felt l ‘disrespected’ him while he was at a party. He pulled me away and punched me squarely in the face, knocking me out cold. I woke up in the passenger seat of our car, without a seatbelt and with Andre speeding at over 100 miles per hour on the 118 freeway. Andre was drunk and out of control. He was swerving and weaving, screaming at me. l was terrified that Andre would crash into the center divider. He threw my planner which contained photographs of our young children out the car window. l begged him to stop or slow down the entire time we were in the car. l thought l was going to die in the car that night.”
Wow. Doesn’t that sound eerily like FKA twigs’s own alleged near-death incident at the hands of Shia LaBeouf? Abusers often follow similar patterns, but the overlap in this story is terrifying. She also shared an even earlier example:
“In September 1995, during an argument in which Andre accused me of being ungrateful for the life he was providing me‚ [I] decided to leave him and move out of his house. As I was packing up my things, Andre, who was drunk and irate that I was standing up to him, grabbed me by my neck, lifted me off the door, and slammed me up against a wall.”
Now, this sounds a lot like what happened to TV personality Dee Barnes. As you may know, Dr. Dre’s well-documented assault on her involved “slamming her face and the right side of her body repeatedly against a wall near the stairway” (per Rolling Stone). The artist admitted to this attack, so it’s not altogether hard to believe that he would do something similar to Nicole a few short years later.
Here’s another excerpt from the mother of three’s court docs:
“In 2012, while we were at our Malibu home, Andre raged at me because he believed I ‘disrespected’ him. He threw me onto the pool table and, once again, held a gun to my head. I was terrified that he was going to kill me. I kept looking outside our window, praying that someone would see what was happening and call the police. I apologized over and over again for ‘disrespecting’ him and begged him to let me go. He was so drunk and angry, I did not know what he was going to do.”
Horrifying.
The 51-year-old’s restraining order was filed on the heels of Dre’s recent diss track. In her filing, she stated:
“[With] the song, he has upped the ante and is now outright threatening me to keep my mouth shut or else. Based on his past threats followed by actual Violence, I am in fear of my safety.”
She also added:
“On July l8, 2020, our three (3) children relayed several messages that Andre instructed them to give me — That he was going to leave me homeless if I did not let him and his lawyer dictate our divorce. I believe Andre intentionally involved our children in our divorce in order to make me feel guilty because I filed for divorce.”
For his part, the Beats by Dre founder denied his ex-wife’s allegations. He told the court:
“I have never hit, attacked, stalked‚ molested, assaulted, threatened or abused Nicole in any fashion‚ at any time. Nor have I ever surveilled or followed her or had anyone to do so. At no time were the police ever called during our marriage. There were never any domestic violence claims made by Nicole during our marriage, formal or informal. There is no documentary evidence of any alleged abuse.”
Related: Dre Returns To The Studio For The First Time Since Brain Aneurysm
He also remarked:
“[After] learning, last August, of Nicole’s false accusations of abuse, I realized then that I did not know the woman I had married and loved. I now want nothing to do with her. This is why I have not seen Nicole or communicated with her or spoken to her since August 2020 (except when she choose [sic] on her own to visit me when I was hospitalized.).”
Given Dre’s history — and his own admission of violence against women in his past — we can’t help but think there may be some truth to Nicole’s allegations. As their legal battle rages on, and with another hearing about the restraining order coming up, we expect more bombshells about this relationship will be dropping soon enough.
[Image via Instagram]