Photo: Desiree Navarro/WireImage
The Bachelorcreator Mike Fleiss is denying his estranged wife’s abuse allegations while also claiming that she “physically attacked” him during an alleged argument.
In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Warner Bros., which represents Mike, said, “We are aware of these serious allegations, and are looking into them.”
He goes on to allege that on July 6, “Laura was the aggressor during the incident and physically attacked me. I tried to get away from her as she was chasing me and hitting me. I have security footage from our home that shows the incident, which the Court can review.”
“After the incident, Laura was initially remorseful. I was leaving Hawaii for work commitments in Los Angeles. I spent time with Ben at the house in Hawaii prior to leaving for Los Angeles. A few days after the incident, Laura stopped all communication with me,” he alleges. “I don’t know where Ben is and I want custody of him because of Laura’s instability.”
“I am asking that the Court deny Laura’s request for a restraining order because she was the perpetrator, not the victim,” he alleges. “I further request that Laura be ordered to immediately return our son Ben to Los Angeles, and for me to have primary custody.”
“On Father’s Day, Laura told me that she was eight weeks pregnant,” he alleges. “When I questioned her about the birth control she said birth control is not always effective.”
Come July 6, Mike alleges that that pair was in their upstairs guest bedroom, where he “told Laura that the only way I could continue in the marriage is if she was honest with me and asked her again to see the phone.”
He claims that when she wouldn’t give him the phone, he “took it out of her hand. She immediately attacked me and so I ran out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and out of the house to my car.”
He further alleges that “the entire time I was running out of the house and to the car, she was pounding on me with her fists, jumping on my back, and attacking me trying to get the phone back. I kept telling her to get away from me. As I ran down the narrow staircase of the house, she was pounding on me so hard that the side of my head was slammed against the wall. Once I stepped outside the house, she continued to follow me, screaming and attacking me.”
After the alleged incident, on July 7, Mike claims that he “contacted the security company for the Hawaii house to obtain footage from the time of the incident. They informed me at that time that Laura had already been in contact with them about the footage. I believe she was trying to have it deleted,” he claims. “I was able to obtain the security footage from the Hawaii house to show the incident once I ran out of the house and Laura followed me, continuing to attack me.”
He also alleges he called his friend and “asked that he take Laura’s phone and drive it back to the house and drop it off. He left the phone on the kitchen counter for Laura that same day.” Mike alleges that he then contacted Laura’s friend “that evening because Laura was not respond to me,” and the friend stated that Laura “was with her and that she was fine.” Mike claims that he “made arrangements” through Laura’s friend “to see Ben the next day.”
Mike claims that Laura and her friend “brought Ben home so that I could spend time with him” before he flew to Los Angeles on July 8. “Laura agreed that we would all meet at the house at 9:00 a.m. the next morning so that I could spend time with Ben,” Mike claims.
On July 7, after arriving around 8:15 a.m. at the house with his friend, Mike claims that “no one was at the house when I arrived” and Laura’s friend said that because “Ben was sleeping late,” they wouldn’t be on time.
“Three days later, Laura informed me on July 9, 2019, that she had called the police and filed a police report,” he claims in the documents. “I have not seen the report and the police never contacted me.”
As of July 9, Mike alleges that Laura has “ceased all contact with me despite my numerous attempts to speak to, FaceTime with, or see Ben. I have no idea where she or Ben are.”
He claims that he has “not had contact with our son in nine days. The last time I saw or spoke to him was at the Hawaii house on July 7, 2019. Due to Laura’s historical emotional instability, I am concerned about her and our son while in her care.”
But in her own declaration, filed first, Laura shared her own side of the story and claims that on July 4, “While we were at our house in Kauai, Mike demanded that I get an abortion.”
“Prior to July 4th, Mike threatened me that if I did not have an abortion, he would end the marriage,” she claims in the documents. “This was not the first time he had threatened a divorce during our marriage, but now, he was using this threat as leverage to force me to have an abortion. In addition, on July 4th, Mike made the following statements to me: ‘I am cutting you off financially Monday morning’; ‘You are paying for everything with your money’; ‘Next time I see you, I don’t want to see your stomach’; and ‘You have a choice, you can choose. Have an abortion or go back to Wisconsin, but you are not taking Ben.’ ”
“He continued to threaten me, demanding to see bank statements showing I paid for an abortion and the flight information to and from Oahu for the medical procedure,” she alleges in the documents.
Laura claims in the documents that “while Mike has frequently been verbally abusive towards me during our marriage, in recent weeks, he has become enraged, due to the fact I am pregnant with our second child.”
“Mike told me many times that he did not want us to have a second child. He also repeatedly told me throughout our marriage, and prior to our marriage, that he knew he would ‘have to have’ one child with me because I was 26-years-old when we got married, did not yet have any children, and he knew I wanted to have a family,” she says in the documents. “Mike, however, being 55-years old, did not want to have more than one child together.”
On July 5, Laura alleges that “Mike was even more angry than he was on July 4th.” She claims that day that she asked a friend to come and stay with her and Ben at the home as Mike was staying at another one of their homes in Hawaii. The next day, on July 6, Laura claims Mike returned and “angrily entered Ben’s bedroom looking for my cellphone.”
She asserts that Mike “forcibly grabbed my phone out of my hands” and then “exited the bedroom, and rushed to the top of the stairs.”
She followed him in an attempt to get her cell phone back, she claims in the documents, “and he yelled that he was going to ‘shove me down the stairs.’ ” As he descended the stairs, Laura followed, she alleges.
But “just before we got outside of the front door, he grabbed my body, forcibly pinned me up against the wall and held me there. After I broke free, he continued to use his arms and hands to aggressively push me away from him as he walked outside the door, still not returning my phone. Then he walked towards his pick-up truck parked outside in our driveway, shouting ‘I’m going to punch your face in,’ ” she claims in the documents.
Laura Fleiss and Mike Fleiss.
As he entered the truck, Laura claims she was “pleading with him not to leave me and Ben at the house without access to my phone” as she “stood on the outside running board/footstep directly below the driver-side door.” She alleges that Mike proceeded to “put the truck in reverse and began to back up, and firmly said, ‘You’re f—–ed.’ He then stopped the car suddenly, which nearly made me fall off the running board and caused the swinging door to almost close on me. At this point, Mike forcefully shoved me off of the running board, closed the car door and drove away with my cellphone in his possession.”
“I was extremely traumatized from the incident and started crying hysterically,” she claims in the documents. “Our unborn child and I could have been severely injured if I had fallen off the truck’s running board or run over the wheels of the truck.”
She alleges, “I am afraid of Mike. I am afraid he will continue to act erratically towards me, verbally and physically, and in the presence of Ben. I have been hiding in a hotel for the past several days with Ben, and want to be able to return home without fear for myself, my son and my unborn child.”
According to Laura’s declaration, she states that on July 10, she “learned through the media” about Mike’s divorce filing.
Meanwhile, Mike alleges in his declaration that he “informed Laura before the filing since I knew it would be picked up in the press and wanted her to hear it from me first. Laura did not respond to me.”
The pair met in 2012 when she was a participant in the Miss America pageant and he was a judge, Laura states in her declaration.
If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
