I thought he might kill me, says Gibson’s ex

MEL GIBSON’S ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva says she feared for her life and thought the Academy Award winner might kill her during a fight when he brandished a gun.

The 40-year-old musician also told People magazine in a story published yesterday that she did not leak an audio recording purportedly of Gibson in a series of racist and misogynistic rants.

Grigorieva offers her account of an argument in January this year during which she claims Gibson hit and choked her.

She didn’t report the alleged abuse until months later, and a potential case against the actor-director has been turned over to prosecutors. Authorities in Los Angeles are also investigating Grigorieva for alleged extortion.

The former couple have been locked in a bitter custody battle over their infant daughter.

Even though she says Mel Gibson hit her and their child, threatened her with a gun and put her in fear for her life, Oksana Grigorieva insists she still wants him to be a part of their 11-month-old daughter Lucia’s life – and not just financially.

Speaking on the Today programme yesterday, the magazine’s deputy managing editor, Peter Castro, said that despite everything Grigorieva still has charity in her heart for Gibson.

“She’s very Christian and she believes in forgiveness,” Castro said. “She knows that she’s going to have this man in her life for the rest of her life, and I think her thinking is, ‘I better make the best of this situation: I want to forgive him, I want to get on.’ He is, after all, the father of that child.”

Gibson, 54, began dating Grigorieva in December 2007, a year after he separated from Robin Gibson, his wife of 26 years and mother of seven of Mel’s children. Robin filed for divorce from Gibson in April 2009, shortly after learning Oksana was pregnant with what would become Mel’s eighth child.

Daughter Lucia was born last October 30, but it was only weeks later that the relationship turned ugly – and, claims Grigorieva, potentially deadly.

The dramatic People magazine headlined I Was Scared For My Life, has Grigorieva recounting how she had already seen hints of a dark side in Gibson that she believes was driven by clinical depression – but things exploded that night.

“That’s when she alleges she went to the house; he was unhappy with the babysitter,” Castro told Vieira. “That’s when he was frothing at the mouth, contorted his face, and as she tried to leave this rage, she alleges he punched her twice – once in the head, once in the mouth.

“When she grabbed her keys to get out of there, that’s when he, she says, pulled a gun and started waving it.”

One of the blows landed on baby Lucia, who was then only nine weeks old, Grigorieva told People.

“One of the blows hit her on the chin and continued and hit Lucia in the chin,” Castro said. “It was a slight cut, but nothing serious,” says Oksana.

Peter Castro, deputy managing editor of People magazine, said Oksana Grigorieva still wants Gibson in her life.

Still, while she contacted her attorney and mother, Grigorieva did not notify police. “She said two reasons: one, nothing enrages Mel Gibson more than humiliation. She literally feared that if she went to the police that he would kill her. The other thing is that she was so shaken, she says that calling the police was not the first thing on her mind.”

Despite what Grigorieva called a horrifying episode, she took the Oscar-winning actor back. “(Oksana said) he got on his knees, he begged, (gave her) flowers; he said, ‘I’m in therapy,’ ” Castro said.

But six weeks later, Grigorieva alleges Gibson abused Lucia. “She alleges he threw Lucia into her arms and says, ‘You better take her, because I’m going to hurt her.’ And that’s when she realised, I better leave this guy forever,” Castro said.