Sean Penn denies ever hitting Madonna with a baseball bat: “She’s someone I love”
During the 1980s, Madonna and Sean Penn’s relationship was highly publicised, but it didn’t last, and they eventually divorced in 1989. Since then, several sources have suggested that Penn was violent towards the singer, but in a recent interview, the actor denied ever hitting her.
Penn has a history of violence, often channelling his rage towards paparazzi. In 1985, he was fined for assaulting journalists who were trying to photograph him and Madonna, and a year later, he was charged with assaulting a man in a nightclub, although he claimed he was not guilty.
The actor even landed himself in prison for just over a month for physically assaulting a person in 1987, the same year that Madonna first tried to file for divorce from him. The singer ended up scrapping the divorce, eventually re-filing two years later.
Due to Penn’s violent nature – and the fact that he and Madonna often got into big arguments – accusations of domestic violence emerged. Talking to The New York Times, Penn discussed the decades-old matter, stating, “I had a freaking SWAT team come into my house. I said: ‘I’m not coming out. I’m going to finish my breakfast.’ The next thing I knew, windows were being broken all around the house and they came in.”
Madonna had reportedly called the police because she was concerned by the fact there were guns in the house. “They had me in handcuffs,” he said. The actor then admitted that a woman he’d spent the night with once asked him if he had actually hit Madonna with a baseball bat.
“I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about,” Penn explained, adding that he is now on good terms with Madonna, who he sees as “someone I love”.
The actor continued, “It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved.”
Madonna cleared up abuse rumours a few years ago while testifying for Penn in a defamation lawsuit. She asserted that the actor “never struck me, ‘tied me up,’ or physically assaulted me”.
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