Three years after writing and starring in “Honey Boy,” Shia LaBeouf sat across from Jon Bernthal on the “Real Ones” podcast in August 2022 and admitted he’d lied about his father. The 2019 film portrayed Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf as an abusive stage parent who terrorized his son during his Disney Channel years. But according to Shia, that version of events was “nonsense.”
“My dad was so loving to me my whole life,” the actor confessed. “Fractures? Sure. Crooked? Sure. Wonky? For sure, but never was not loving, never was not there.”
The admission reopened questions about Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, the 77-year-old Vietnam War veteran who currently lives as a fugitive in Costa Rica after fleeing sex offender registration requirements in 2017.
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The Early Years: From Combat to Comedy
Born February 1, 1948, in Los Angeles, Jeffrey comes from Cajun French ancestry rooted in Louisiana. After serving in the Army during the Vietnam War in the 1970s, he returned home with psychological wounds that would shadow the rest of his life.
Jeffrey turned to performance art as both career and coping mechanism. He worked as a circus clown, performed in rodeo rings, did commedia dell’arte theater, and toured briefly as an opening act for the Doobie Brothers. Between gigs, he took odd jobs to survive.
In the late 1970s, he met Shayna Saide, a dancer and visual artist, at an Echo Park artist market. They married in 1978. Their only child, Shia Saide LaBeouf, was born June 11, 1986.
The Crime That Changed Everything
Before becoming a father, Jeffrey committed the offense that would define much of his later life. In 1981, while heavily intoxicated on cocaine and alcohol, he was arrested and charged with attempted rape. He pleaded guilty.
“When he was brought before the judge, he pleaded guilty to the charges, and he was quite devastated upon seeing the victim,” according to an interview Jeffrey gave years later. He served three years in prison from 1981 to 1983.
The conviction made him a registered sex offender, requiring annual check-ins with law enforcement and placement on public registries under Megan’s Law. That requirement would follow him for decades.
Growing Up LaBeouf
By 1989, Jeffrey and Shayna’s marriage had collapsed under financial pressure and his ongoing battles with heroin and alcohol. They divorced when Shia was three.
“When you’re 10 years old and watch your father going through heroin withdrawals, you grow up real fast,” Shia told The Orange County Register in 2007. “You become the parent in the relationship.”
Jeffrey admits he introduced his son to marijuana at age 10. Both parents struggled with addiction. Shia attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with his father during childhood.
The family lived in poverty in Echo Park. To make money, they dressed in full clown costumes and sold hot dogs on Los Angeles streets.
The Even Stevens Years
Shia’s 2000 casting on Disney Channel’s “Even Stevens” changed the family’s financial situation overnight. But because Shia was a minor, California law required adult supervision on set. He hired Jeffrey at $400 per week.
For three years, father and son lived together at the Motel Vista, a budget hotel. During this period, Jeffrey was accused of sexual harassment by an entertainer working on the show. Shia later confirmed his father attacked a Disney executive who hugged him.
Their relationship during these years was transactional. “For him it wasn’t about being with a son that he loved,” Shia told Daily Mail in 2008. “He was getting some money and he was staying off drugs. He was rent-a-dad.”
Honey Boy and Public Reckoning
By 2017, Shia and Jeffrey hadn’t spoken in seven years. That year, following a drunk driving arrest, Shia entered court-ordered rehab where he was diagnosed with PTSD. During treatment, he wrote the screenplay for “Honey Boy.”
The film depicted Jeffrey (played by Shia) as a volatile alcoholic who verbally and physically abused his son. It showed a father jealous of his child’s success, prone to rage, and emotionally manipulative.
Released in 2019, the film received widespread acclaim. But Jeffrey immediately disputed the portrayal.
“I never hit Shia in the face,” he told GEN in November 2019. “I did threaten him one time. In terms of being physical with him, when he was a baby or young boy, and he wanted to have a tantrum and scream and holler and cry, I would pick him up by one foot upside down, and he would totally change.”
To get the film made, Shia needed his father’s signature. He admitted later he misled Jeffrey about the script’s content. “I remember getting on the phone with him and him being like, ‘You know, I never read this stuff in the script you sent.’ Because I didn’t put that in there,” Shia told the podcast. “I was lying to him. I was just trying to get him to sign this piece of paper.”
The Admission
Three years after the film’s release, on Jon Bernthal’s podcast, Shia walked back the entire narrative. “I wrote this narrative which was just nonsense,” he said. “I turned the knob up on certain things that wasn’t real.”
He acknowledged wronging his father publicly. “I did a world press tour about how messed up my dad was as a man,” Shia said. The admission came after the two had reconciled in 2021.
Life in Costa Rica
Meanwhile, Jeffrey had his own legal troubles. In January 2014, he violated his sex offender registration requirements. Three years later, in 2017, he fled to Costa Rica.
“I’m not wanted for anything. I squeak going around corners,” Jeffrey told GEN from his home in San Juan de Dios. “But I got tired of dealing with Megan’s Law. A person commits a crime, and they’re on me for the rest of my life. I haven’t committed no crimes since 1980.”
He claims to live on his military pension, denying rumors that Shia funds his life abroad. “I’m managing my expenses here, but if things get tough, I know my kids will step in,” he said. He spends his time teaching art and working on small creative projects.
California’s 2021 changes to sex offender registry laws (Senate Bill 384) may eventually allow him to petition for removal from the registry, potentially enabling his return to the United States.
Where They Stand Now
After reuniting in 2021, Shia helped his father through treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and supported his recovery efforts. He called it “probably the crowning achievement of any amends I’ve made.”
Shia’s mother, Shayna Saide, died in New York City on August 27, 2022, at age 79. Her death brought father and son into closer contact.
Their relationship remains complicated. Shia described it as having “fractures” but also acknowledged his father’s consistent presence throughout his life, even when that presence was messy.
Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf stays in Costa Rica, away from American authorities and the Hollywood spotlight. His story captures the collision between fame, family dysfunction, and the search for truth in a relationship where both sides carry scars. The public narrative has shifted multiple times. What remains constant is a father and son still working through decades of pain, addiction, and misunderstanding.
