A Halle Berry Instagram post became the latest point of dispute in her court battle with former husband Olivier Martinez, but it was not enough to persuade Judge Shelley Kaufman to reopen evidence.
The deleted Instagram Story said: “If kids disrespect their mom, the root cause often traces back to their relationship with the father.” Martinez’s attorney, Patrick Baghdaserians, argued that the message targeted his client and violated a temporary restraining order.
He asked to question Berry about the post, telling the court it was “disturbing my client’s peace, disturbing my client’s calm.” Kaufman denied the request.
The hacking claim remains unverified
Berry’s attorney, Marina Beck, described the motion as a “last-minute grasp at straws, nothing more than a witch hunt.” She also accused Baghdaserians of raising the request in open court, with reporters present, to continue what she called a “false narrative.”
Sources close to Berry told TMZ that she did not publish the Story and that her account appeared to have been hacked. That explanation has not been publicly confirmed by Berry, Instagram or law enforcement. In other words, the central problem was not simply what the post said, but whether anyone could reliably establish who said it.
Page Six, TMZ and Complex reported the same wording from the Story and Martinez’s claim that it breached the court order. Public accounts of the hearing do not indicate that Kaufman made any finding about who uploaded it. The judge simply refused to reopen the evidence on that basis.
No subsequent ruling on the social media dispute had been publicly reported by October 28, 2026. The broader restraining-order and custody proceedings also remained unresolved in the latest available coverage.
The dispute began with conflicting abuse claims
The legal fight concerns Berry and Martinez’s son, Maceo, who turned 13 during the proceedings. Martinez alleges that Berry jumped on the boy and choked him during a September 26 argument while he was playing a virtual reality game.
Berry disputes that account. She says she and Maceo were playfully roughhousing and denies ever abusing him. Beck has called Martinez’s allegations “entirely meritless and deliberately misleading.”
Maceo testified behind closed doors during a hearing on Martinez’s restraining-order request. Both parents were ordered to leave the courtroom while he gave evidence, shielding his testimony from the public proceedings.
The Los Angeles Times reported that a temporary order issued on October 1 required Berry to remain 100 yards from Martinez and limited her parenting time, while still allowing contact permitted under the existing custody arrangement. Martinez sought sole custody along with psychological and substance testing for Berry. The judge initially rejected the testing request, finding that he had not provided enough information.
Martinez has said he does not want to “permanently sever” the relationship between Berry and their son, but wants her to show “sufficient accountability.” Berry maintains that his version of events is false.
Earlier testimony may complicate Martinez’s case
AOL reported another point of tension in the evidence. Martinez testified that Berry had abused him, but was confronted with a sworn statement from 2024 in which he reportedly said the former couple had no history of domestic violence.
That discrepancy does not resolve the current allegations, but it adds another contested statement to proceedings already crowded with them. The Instagram Story then introduced a separate attribution problem: a provocative message appeared on Berry’s account, while her side denied that she posted it and no publicly identified evidence established otherwise.
Berry and Martinez married in 2013, separated in 2015 and completed their divorce in August 2023. They agreed to joint custody, with Berry paying $8,000 a month in child support plus 4.3 percent of annual income above $2 million.
