Because it needs to be said: Gary Oldman never beat his wife.
We see this come up way too often, and it really upsets us every time it does.
Yes, during their divorce proceedings, his third wife accused him of beating both her and their children. It was investigated by the courts, social services, and the LAPD, and no evidence was ever found to substantiate her claims. Gary was given full custody of their children, and she was only allowed short, court-monitored visits.
She also accused him of drinking and doing drugs while they were married. Gary quit drinking in 1994 with the help of rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous, and has stated numerous times that he never did, or was interested in doing, drugs.
There are several people who witnessed her applying, and then later washing off, makeup to look like bruises. She told their son Charlie, who was 2 at the time, to say that his daddy hit him. Abuse she claims was perpetuated on their children by Gary, some of it serious enough to require trips to the hospital, has no paper trail; there are no records whatsoever of any ER visits for their children, or for her.
I think what is most telling is that there are no other claims of abuse on Gary from any of his previous wives or girlfriends (Lesley Manville, Uma Thurman, Isabella Rossellini, Ailsa Marshall), or his current wife (Alex Edenborough). You would think, when his third wife leveled her accusations against him, the previous women in his life would have come forward and said, “Yes, I was abused too.” But they didn’t. After his divorce, he dated Ailsa for about three years, and he’s been married to Alex for over four years now, and neither of them has said anything either. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that 5 women would all keep it a secret if their husband/boyfriend abused them, not to mention Gary’s girlfriends that we don’t know about.
Nobody but his third wife has made these claims, and that alone should tell you something.
Gary is quite obviously a warm, caring person, who loves with his whole heart, and it’s a shame that it had to come back and bite him in the ass in such a big way.
We would also like to point out that false claims like this are just as harmful as legitimate claims, as they further the belief that someone who is under the influence can’t be abused/raped/assaulted/etc because they must be lying. Sometimes a lie is just a lie.
We can’t stop people from continuing to report these lies, but we can at least try to make people think before choosing to believe it.
