Dustin Lance Black Will Stand Trial For Allegedly Attacking A TV Presenter At A Club, And Husband Tom Daley Had To Break Up The Fight
The Telegraph reports that Dustin Lance Black will stand trial for allegedly assaulting female TV presenter Teddy Edwardes at a gay bar in London last summer. Apparently, Dustin’s husband, Tom Daley, was the one to break up the fight. The assault that Dustin is accused of is throwing a drink over Teddy. Teddy says she responded with “a little tap” on the back of his head. But Dustin’s spokesperson describes Teddy’s “tap” as a “punch,” which allegedly led to Dustin suffering a “life-altering concussion.”
So. On August 18, 2022, 48-year-old Dustin and 28-year-old Tom went to Freedom nightclub in Soho for a “date night.” In a since-deleted Instagram post from the day after the incident, 33-year-old BBC Three presenter Teddy says she was at the club “for a couple of quiet drinks with my friends, nothing crazy.” She claims she bumped into Dustin and Tom and invited the couple to sit at their table. But then… drama! Teddy says “this random guy” came and sat with the group, which made her friend “uncomfortable.” So, Teddy called security over to ask if “they could move them on” (presumably just the random guy).
Teddy says security getting involved got Dustin all riled up. She claims he was “going mad” about how unwelcome he’d been made to feel and announced he was leaving. She says her response was, “OK? If that’s what you want?” Then, Teddy claims Dustin threw an entire drink on her “pretty much unprovoked.” Teddy alleges that she “didn’t have a drink to back,” so she “chose violence.” But she insists, “it wasn’t that violent, he got a little tap on the back of the head.” She adds that “Tom Daley was lovely throughout, he was just trying to defuse the situation.”
So, that’s Teddy’s Version. But in Dustin’s Version, he says that it wasn’t a tap, it was a full-blown punch. After the tap/punch, Dustin called the police. The Scotland Yard says their officers were called to the club at around 12:30 AM. Teddy says she was the one kicked out of the club after club security checked their security footage. No one was arrested.
The following month, Dustin posted this to Instagram, writing that he’d suffered a “serious head injury”:
Cut to today, when Dustin is the one being charged with assault. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video link from his L.A. home. He pled not guilty to one charge of assault by beating, and will remain on unconditional bail until the trial, which will begin August 8. A rep for Dustin tells the U.K. newspaper Metro:
“Mr Black was surprised and saddened to learn that after the other person involved in this unfortunate incident took responsibility and expressed remorse for a punch to the back of Mr Black’s head – which left him with a life altering concussion – a decision was made to now examine the matter of a spilled drink in a court of law. Of course Mr Black will respect the process, and in the meantime will continue to focus on being a loving father and husband.”
Even though she wiped her original post about the incident from her Instagram, Teddy still has something to say. Here are some of her Instagram Stories from today:
Today is the day I learned that throwing a drink at someone is considered a crime. But to be fair, there’s a very good chance I’ve been desensitized to this shit after years of watching The Real Housewives throw drinks at each other.
Pic: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images/INSTA