Brian Austin Green has responded to claims he’s a “bad father” after defending ex-wife Megan Fox over their sons’ outfit choices.
The Beverly Hills: 90210 alum took to social media on 15 June after he received a negative comment from an Instagram follower referring to him as “bad father”.
“People like this have lost their minds,” the 49-year-old actor responded in his Instagram Story. “Why anyone thinks it’s morally OK to attack people like this that they have never even met is crazy.”
The Desperate Housewives star – who shares sons Noah, 10, Bodhi, nine, and Journey, six, with Megan Fox – also called on social media users to “do better as a society.”
“We owe it to the future generations,” he added.
Green’s comments come less than one week after Transformers star Megan Fox called out Republican politician Robby Starbuck after he tweeted a picture of Fox with her three sons, claiming she forced her sons to “wear girls clothes”.
“These are Megan Fox’s sons. We used to live in the same gated community and our kids played at the park,” Starbuck captioned the tweet. Alongside the tweet, a paparazzi photo showed her eldest son Noah wearing a pink long-sleeved T-shirt and tie-dye shorts, while Bodhi and Journey were dressed in dark T-shirts and trousers.
“I saw two of them have a full on breakdown saying they were forced by their mom to wear girls clothes as their nanny tried to console them,” he claimed. “It’s pure child abuse. Pray for them.”
Fox then responded to Starbuck’s claims of “child abuse” in a post shared to her Instagram. “Hey @robbystarbuck I really don’t want to give you this attention because clearly you’re a clout chaser. But let me teach you something,” the 37-year-old actor began her post. “Irregardless [sic] of how desperate you may have become at any given time to acquire wealth, power, success or fame – never use children as leverage or social currency. Especially under malevolent and erroneous pretense.”
“Exploiting my child’s gender identity to gain attention in your political campaign has put you on the wrong side of the universe,” the mother-of-three said. “I have been burned at the stake by insecure, narcissistic, impotent little men like you many times and yet I’m still here. You f***ed with the wrong witch.”
Green immediately defended Fox, whom he was married to from 2010 to 2021, in a statement to TMZ. “It’s a totally bogus story,” Green told the outlet on 10 June. “There are only a few people in their world that can actually verify wether [sic] or not a story like this is true and I can tell you with absolute certainty it is not. This person trying to claim this is true is a perfect example of someone with selfish motives that does not care about negatively affecting a parent child relationship.”
He echoed his most recent social media statement when he told TMZ: “As a society I hope we continue to push to be better. This Robby Starbuck person is full of s***, and I have no idea who he is.”
In addition to his three sons with Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green also shares one-year-old son Zane Walker with girlfriend Sharna Burgess and 21-year-old son Kassius Lijah with ex-girlfriend Vanessa Marcil. Meanwhile, Fox has been engaged to singer Machine Gun Kelly since January 2022.
Following the controversy, photo agency Backgrid took legal action against former GOP congressional candidate Robby Starbuck, accusing him of infringing on their copyright to the paparazzi picture of Megan Fox and her three sons.
In the legal letter obtained by TMZ, Backgrid claimed that Starbuck did not purchase or license their photo before he published it on Twitter. The photo agency maintained that the image was not within “fair use”, in which third parties are allowed to use copyrighted works without permission in certain limited circumstances.
Backgrid also argued that Starbuck cannot argue his use of the photo was for political purposes. The letter read: “While historically not always the case, we expect those who hope to serve as our elected representatives to lead by example and fully comply with federal law. Today, we demand you do so.”
However, it’s unclear whether Backgrid is seeking compensation after Starbuck used their photo, or for how much.
Brian Austin Green appeared to respond to Backgrid’s legal letter for Starbuck when he shared a link to the TMZ report on his Instagram Story, along with the caption: “Mess with the bull…”
The Independent has contacted Backgrid for comment.
