Sean Penn denies assaulting ex-wife Madonna: 'She is someone I love'

Despite their rocky past, actor Sean Penn has expressed fondness for Madonna and reflected on the difficulties of mending friendships after divorce. Penn, who was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989, addressed long-standing rumors about their marriage in a recent interview with The New York Times. He firmly denied all accusations of physical abuse during their relationship.

During their divorce, there were reports that Sean had struck Madonna with a baseball bat. However, Sean has refuted these claims, saying they are completely false.
Reflecting on their past relationship, Sean shared an incident where a SWAT team entered his house after Madonna reportedly told the police she was concerned about guns in the house. He recounted, "I had a freaking SWAT team come into my house. I told them I wasn’t coming out and was going to finish my breakfast. The next thing I knew, windows were being broken all around the house, and they had me in handcuffs."
Despite the turbulence, Sean admitted he still has a soft spot for Madonna. He said, "She’s someone I love. It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are no kids involved. It took [ex-wife Robin Wright] and me quite a while. There was a lot of drama. It's much more important to repair things if there are kids involved, but it's not easy."
Sean, now 63, and Madonna, 65, were married for four years. Madonna first filed for divorce in 1987, but withdrew the papers before filing again in 1989. During that time, reports surfaced that Sean had physically assaulted Madonna, including hitting her with a baseball bat and tying her to a chair for hours. However, Madonna has denied these allegations, stating in a 2015 testimony on Sean's behalf in a defamation lawsuit against Lee Daniels that, "While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never struck me, 'tied me up,' or physically assaulted me. Any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless, and false."

Sean had filed a $10 million lawsuit against Lee Daniels after the Empire co-creator mentioned Sean in the context of discussing domestic violence in Hollywood. The lawsuit was settled in 2016.