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We knew that the divorce settlement between Dr. Dre and his estranged wife Nicole Young would go on for a while. There’s too much money at stake. But apparently, it’s not the only factor at play.
According to The Daily Mail, new court documents state that Nicole Young has accused her estranged husband of holding a gun to her head, punching her in the face, and lifting her off of the ground by her neck.
Apparently, the documents were filed just days before Dre was admitted to the hospital for a brain aneurysm.
Dre, real name Andre Young, has vehemently denied the claims, stating, “At no time did I abuse Nicole or threaten her physical safety.”
Nicole Young claims something entirely different, calling Dre’s words “blatant lies.”
In her response, Nicole wrote, “I have explained in excruciating and painful detail the abuse that Andre has perpetrated against me over our more than 25-yea-relationship.
Some of those details include the time Nicole accused Dre of holding a gun to her head on two occasions, once on January 8, 2000 and again on November 20, 2001. She claims that Dre punched her in the head and face in 1999 and again in 2000.
She also recalled events where Dre’s actions threatened her physical safety.
“’Andre kicked down the door to a bedroom in which I was hiding from his rage in 2016. Andre has verbally and emotionally decimated my personhood to the extent that I currently suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.”
Dre has argued his innocence claiming that the police had never been called to the couple’s home for a domestic dispute during their marriage.
Nicole agreed.
But she shared that there is a caveat. The police were called in 1995, before they tied the knot. On this occasion, Nicole accuses Dre of slamming her against the wall and lifting her off the ground by her neck.
Nicole explained why she stopped calling the police once they were husband and wife.
‘During our marriage, I considered calling the police several times but, as I fell deeper into the abusive relationship, my fear of Andre outweighed any confidence I had that the police could help me.’
She said for Dre to insinuate that she is lying about the abuse because she did not maintain documentation of each incident is “revolting and insulting.”
“It is well known and accepted that most victims of domestic violence do not have documentary evidence of their abuse.”
Dr. Dre’s estranged wife is not the only woman to accuse him of domestic violence.
In 2013, singer Michel’le opened up about the domestic abuse she experienced at the hands of Dr. Dre, her ex and father of her child. In speaking about plastic surgery, Michel’e revealed that she had her nose one in order to straighten it after the damage inflicted by Dre.
In addition to breaking her nose, she said that she had to cover black eyes on video shoots because Dre had beaten her.
Michel’le detailed the abuse even further in Lifetime biopic Surviving Compton.
Years later, when the film Straight Outta Compton was released in theaters, journalist Dee Barnes revealed that Dr. Dre physically attacked her as well in 1991 at the Po Na Na Souk nightclub. Apparently, Dre was upset to learn that Barnes had interviewed Ice Cube, the former member of their rap group NWA and Dre interpreted her even speaking to him as a journalist as a sign of disrespect.
Later, in an interview with Wendy Williams, Dee Barnes insinuated that not only did Dre beat her that night in the club, the encounter also involved sexual assault as well.
Barnes was subsequently blacklisted from the industry while Dre went on to have a thriving career in music and business.
Tairrie B, whose real name is Theresa Murphy, a former labelmate of Dre, accused him of punching her in the face twice at a Grammy’s after party in 1990 after she insulted him on a track.
In response to these allegations, Dr. Dre issued a somewhat vague apology to “the women he hurt” in a statement to The New York Times.
The apology came just as Dre was solidifying his business relationship with Apple. Having just sold Beats by Dre to the company for $3 billion, he was also appointed as a top consultant for the tech company.
It will be hard to prove that Dr. Dre enacted the same violence against his wife without documentation. But patterns of abuse die hard. And if Dr. Dre spent years abusing other women in his life, I don’t understand why Nicole, who spent the last 25 years with him, would be an exception.
