In the days before social media, Sean Penn and Madonna were tabloid fixtures, with reports of shocking alleged violence emerging from their short marriage from 1985 to 1989. One of those stories, as Penn recently confirmed, was true: a SWAT team did raid their home.
Before the internet made fact-checking easier, many rumors picked up steam and became “fact” in the minds of millions. Sean Penn and Madonna were no strangers to this phenomenon. As the biggest pop star on the planet in the 1980s, Madonna was often front and center in the tabloids. When she married Sean Penn in 1985, their union became the stuff of tabloid fodder, with disturbing stories about their marital home spreading around.
In an era where it wasn’t easy to verify anything seen, many of those rumors became legendary, even if they weren’t necessarily true. One such story claimed Penn hit Madonna with a baseball bat, while another alleged he “trussed her up like a turkey.”
Like most celebrities at the time, neither Penn nor Madonna responded to the wild and often baseless accusations. Celebrity life was very different then. But now, Penn has the opportunity to set the record straight about “someone I love.”
Despite their marriage ending just four years after it began, Penn told The New York Times that he and Madonna were able to land in a good place. “It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved,” he said.
Penn went through a similar post-divorce journey with Robin Wright, with whom he shares two children, Dylan Frances, 33, and Hopper Jack, 30. Penn and Wright got together shortly after his marriage to Madonna ended and were married from 1996 to 2010. “It took Robin and I quite a while. There was a lot of drama,” Penn said of coming to a better place in their relationship after their divorce. “Much more important to repair it if there are kids involved, but no easy swing, right?”
When talking about some of those rumors about his supposedly tumultuous marriage to Madonna, Penn said he didn’t even know what some of them meant, like the one where he allegedly “trussed her up like a turkey.” “I didn’t know what ‘trussed up’ meant,” Penn told the Times. Another story came back to haunt him in a later relationship, with Penn sharing that after a “lovely night” together, he found her the next morning “looking at me like I killed her dog.” She then asked “about this hitting Madonna in the head with a baseball bat” rumor. “‘I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about,” Penn admitted. “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 the years since their divorce, Madonna has also pushed back against those persistent marital violence rumors. In 2015, she testified that he’d never abused her in support of his $10 million defamation lawsuit against Lee Daniels, creator of Empire. The suit was ultimately settled, with Daniels apologizing publicly. After Empire star Terrance Howard admitted that he’d slapped his wife in front of their children, Daniels jumped to his star’s defense by saying he at least had never done what “Marlon Brando or Sean Penn” did. In her affidavit supporting her ex, Madonna not only denied physical violence but specifically cited the “trussed” and baseball bat stories. “While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never struck me, ‘tied me up’ or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless and false,” she said, as noted by The Daily Mail.
But with all the stories that were categorically false, per both parties involved, Penn did admit that one had some truth to it. A SWAT team did raid their house in response to one argument after Madonna called them concerned about guns in the house. According to Penn, they smashed in windows, bursting into the home and putting him “in handcuffs.” According to Penn, he’d said he wasn’t going to come out, but was “going to finish my breakfast. The next thing I knew, windows were being broken all around the house and they came in.”
Sean Penn has recalled a SWAT team forcing their way into his house during his marriage to Madonna. The 63-year-old actor was wed to the ‘Hung Up’ hitmaker from 1985 to 1989 and at the time, there were rumors of tension in their relationship, with the ‘Milk’ star filing a defamation lawsuit in 2015 over allegations he was physically abusive. And Sean has now discussed their turbulent relationship, including an incident where Madonna, 65, had told police she was worried about guns in the house. He recalled to the New York Times newspaper: “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. “[Then] they had me in handcuffs.” And it was only years later that the ‘Mystic River’ actor learned there had been stories he had Madonna “trussed up like a turkey”. He noted: “I didn’t know what ‘trussed up’ meant, first.” Sean dated one woman who, after a “lovely night” together, confronted him about the rumors the next morning while he was outside smoking. He said: “She’s looking at me like I killed her dog, [asking] about this hitting Madonna in the head with a baseball bat. “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.”
The ‘Into the Wild’ director hailed Madonna as “someone I love” and contrasted the aftermath of their divorce to the 2010 end of his marriage to Robin Wright, the mother of his children Dylan, 33, and 30-year-old Hopper. He said: “It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved. “It took Robin and I quite a while. There was a lot of drama.” The ‘Dead Man Walking’ star also married Leila George in July 2020 but they split in October 2021, and he suggested his heart and brain were “shrinking” during their relationship. He said: “On one of my marriages, the background noise of life was a ‘Housewives of Beverly Hills’ or another thing called ‘Love Island’. “Not even being in the room — I’m not saying this to be cute — I was dying. I felt my heart, my brain shrinking. It was an assault.” Sean is single at the moment and feels “thrilled every day”. He said: “I’m just free. If I’m going to be in a relationship, I’m still going to be free, or I’m not going to be in it, and I’m not going to be hurting. I don’t sense I’ll have my heart broken by romance again.”
Sean Penn, who was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989, broke his silence on rumors that he hit the “Material Girl” singer with a baseball bat during their marriage. The Mystic River star recently addressed the long-standing rumors that he physically assaulted his ex-wife Madonna—to whom he was married from 1985 to 1989—with a baseball bat, noting it has followed him around for years. In fact, the Oscar winner described a date who asked him point blank about the supposed incident, telling The New York Times, “She’s looking at me like I killed her dog.” In addition to denying the rumors, Sean also emphasized how they initially caught him off guard. “I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about,” Sean explained in the interview published June 24. “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.” But while the Milk actor—who has also been married to Robin Wright and Leila George—denied any incident involving a bat, he did share insight into his and Madonna’s turbulent marriage.”I had a freaking SWAT team come into my house,” he recalled of one incident when Madonna feared there were guns in their home. “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.”
As for Madonna—who later married Guy Richie for eight years—she’s previously shared insight into her marriage to Sean, even shutting down the rumors, which began circulating in the ‘80s. After Sean filed a defamation lawsuit against Lee Daniels in 2015 for remarks he made in an interview alluding to Sean engaging in domestic violence, Madonna issued an affidavit denying the rumor. “While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage,” the “Popular” singer’s affidavit read, according to court files obtained by E! News at the time. “Sean has never struck me, ‘tied me up,’ or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless and false.” The I Am Sam star later settled the $10 million lawsuit after Daniels issued an apology and extended an unspecified charitable donation to an organization of Sean’s choice, per The Hollywood Reporter. And while Sean and Madonna may have cut all romantic ties back in 1989, he noted he has a lot of love for the Material Girl. “It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved,” he noted to The New York Times. “She’s someone I love.”
E! News has reached out to reps for Madonna regarding Sean’s recent comments but has not yet heard back. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
Sean Penn cleared the air about his past relationship with Madonna. The Oscar winner, 63, told the New York Times that he never physically assaulted the “Vogue” singer, 65, when they were married from 1985 to 1989. Penn recalled the time that his home was raided by the SWAT team after Madonna called the police because she was concerned about guns in the house. “I said: ‘I’m not coming out. I’m going to finish my breakfast,’ ” Penn said in the interview published Saturday. “The next thing I knew, windows were being broken all around the house and they came in. They had me in handcuffs,” he added.
The “Mystic River” star said that at the time, there were rumors he “trussed [Madonna] up like a turkey.” He also claimed that he once spent a night with a woman who asked if he hit Madonna with a baseball bat. “I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about,” Penn said. He also described Madonna as “someone I love,” and compared their relationship to his dynamic with his second ex-wife, actress Robin Wright, with whom he shares two children. “It turns out it’s a lot quicker to repair a friendship after divorce if there are not kids involved,” said Penn. “It took Robin and I quite a while. There was a lot of drama. Much more important to repair it if there are kids involved, but no easy swing, right?”
There were rumors that Penn abused Madonna back in the day, including when the “Hung Up” singer filed to divorce Penn twice, first in 1987 and then in 1989. In 2015, their relationship was in the headlines again when “Empire” creator Lee Daniels referred to Penn while mentioning men in Hollywood who committed domestic abuse. Daniels, 64, was defending actor Terrence Howard from abuse claims by his ex-wives, and told the Hollywood Reporter that Howard “ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn.” In response, Penn filed a $10 million lawsuit against Daniels. “Sean is dismayed at the gratuitous attacks and statements that have been made over the years at his expense, and he wants to take a stand and correct the record,” Penn’s lawyer said in a statement at the time. Madonna testified on Penn’s behalf and denied that he ever abused her when they were married. “While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never struck me, ‘tied me up,’ or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless, and false,” she wrote in a statement at the time, according to the NYT. Penn dropped the lawsuit in 2016 after Daniels apologized for his remarks and donated to one of Penn’s charities.
That same year, Madonna praised Penn when she attended his annual Help Haiti Home gala. “I want to say Sean, I love you, from the moment that I laid eyes on you,” Madonna said, before jokingly adding, “I just wish you’d stop smoking cigarettes.”
Source: The New York Times, The Daily Mail, E! News, The Hollywood Reporter
