According to the suit, their relationship formally began in May 2017 after knowing each other, as Phillippe later put it, “for some time.” Hewitt claims that shortly after they began dating, Phillippe demanded that she spend inordinate amounts of time with him, and obsessively tracked her location via the “Find my Friends” feature on iPhone. Because of this, Hewitt claimed in her suit that she kept many of her belongings at Phillippe’s house, had an entry code to his door, and often slept there. Hewitt’s lawyers also wrote in her suit that, “In addition to telling Hewitt that he missed her, Phillippe often told Hewitt that he ‘needed her.’”
That summer, the actor told Hewitt that he “looked forward to spending the long July 4 weekend” with her, and was “disappointed” when she asked him to attend a July 3 day party in Malibu. (She claims that he initially became enraged when she asked him to attend after learning an ex-boyfriend of hers might be there.) Afterwards, Hewitt and her friend went to Nobu, a popular Malibu hotspot, with Phillippe, a fact agreed on by both parties. It was there, Hewitt said, that the jealous behavior—fervently tracking her location, monitoring her activity, capitalizing on her time—resurfaced. When Phillippe saw Hewitt socializing with various people at the party, some of them men, she said, he stormed out. She claims he became “extremely angry”; in text messages between them, provided to the press by Hewitt’s lawyer, he says that he felt ignored and disrespected. It’s here their stories diverge
Elsie Hewitt claims that she went to Phillippe’s house hours after he had left the party to retrieve her belongings. Upon going upstairs, Phillippe attacked her, punching and kicking her, before “violently” throwing her down his staircase. A friend who was with Hewitt at the time tried to fight Phillippe off, but said that due to his “comparative size and strength,” she was unsuccessful. (Phillippe has denied these accusations.) After leaving Nobu, the actor said he picked up a woman at a different party and brought her back to his house. He says he was surprised to be awakened at 2:30am in the morning by Hewitt and her friend who he says were both drunk. He claims that she attacked him while trying to get into his bedroom. What Hewitt perceived as an assault was, as Phillippe later said, simply “protecting both himself and the girl in his bedroom.” His lawyers also claim that he did not throw her down the stairs—merely, he picked her up, tried to carry her out of the house , but slipped before reaching the stairs and caught her in his arms.
Phillippe, in depositions and court filings, describes how he made up his mind before the incident that Hewitt wasn’t “the right fit for him,” and that he feared his children would see pictures of him with a much younger, “revealingly” dressed woman. In text messages sent July 5 and obtained in September 2017 by Hollywood Life, however, he claims that he was “falling in love with you, Elsie,” and that he was still thinking about her “soft skin and beautiful smile, how you felt laying on me” just days after the assault, adding: “You’re too great as you are, baby. Smart, and funny, and complicated, and damaged, and stunningly beautiful.”
Shortly after Hewitt filed her lawsuit, sources told The Blast that Paulina Slagter, Phillippe’s ex-fiancée, contacted Hewitt, claiming to have spent “tons of money on lawyers ‘to protect herself from Phillippe.’” When asked about this, Phillippe’s lawyer’s told me: “The case has been resolved.” He would not respond to further requests for comment.
Phillippe claimed in a November 2017 case filing that Hewitt was extorting him, and that he asked the court to quash her lawsuit so he could begin taking “appropriate legal action to hold Hewitt accountable for the serious harm” she inflicted on Phillippe. With the case now settled, I can’t foresee that happening.
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