Mystic River actor Sean Penn denied the wild rumor that he physically abused his ex-wife Madonna with a baseball bat, telling outlets that she's still "someone I love."
During a recent interview with the New York Times, Penn discussed his turbulent marriage with Madonna in the 1980s and a sensational claim that he tied his at-the-time wife to a chair on one occasion and struck her with a baseball bat on another.
Both Madonna and Penn have vehemently denied he was ever violent with her, and the singer even testified in court on his behalf in a defamation lawsuit over the allegations.
The 63-year-old Fast Times at Ridgemont High actor has cleared the air on the issue again — admitting one of their marital disputes resulted in a SWAT team arriving at their home — but denying any serious physical abuse took place.
According to his interview with the Times, Madonna supposedly called the police, saying she was anxious about guns being in the house. Soon after she alerted the authorities, SWAT burst onto the premises, smashing windows and putting Sean "in handcuffs."
"I had a freaking SWAT team come into my house," Sean told columnist Maureen Dowd.
"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," he recalled.
Sean and Madonna got married in 1985, which led to a rollercoaster marriage. The couple divorced after two years in 1987. They reconciled briefly, but the pop star left the actor for good in 1989.
Eventually, the actor found out about the rumors that he had "trussed her up like a turkey," which he explained, "I didn’t know what 'trussed up' meant, first."
While he was with a new girlfriend, he woke up one morning, went out for a smoke, and was confronted about hitting Madonna in the head with a baseball bat.
Penn told Dowd, "I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Now, I think it’s fair to say that I’m not the biggest guy in the world. But if I hit Mike Tyson in the head with a baseball bat, he’s going to the hospital."
In 2015, Madonna testified that Penn never abused her, supporting his $10 million defamation lawsuit against Empire creator Lee Daniels.
The Milk actor and his ex-wife reportedly enjoy an amicable relationship with one another because, as he explained, "It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved."
Penn would go on to have a more difficult time mending things with his second ex-wife, Robin Wright, with whom he shares his daughter Dylan, 33, and son Hopper, 30.