The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss’ estranged wife is accusing him of physically attacking her while pregnant after he “demanded” she get an abortion.
On Tuesday, Laura Fleiss (née Kaeppeler) filed for an emergency domestic violence restraining order, according to her declaration obtained by The Blast. In the document, she claimed that on July 4, “While we were at our house in Kauai, Mike demanded that I get an abortion.”
PEOPLE is out to Warner Bros., which represents Mike Fleiss, for comment.
According to the documents, filed in court by attorneys Samantha Spector and Lisa Meyer, Laura said that she is “approximately 10 weeks pregnant.” She and Mike, 55, already share 4-year-old son Benjamin. He recently filed for divorce.
“Our son Ben was in the house, seated in another room nearby,” Laura, 31, alleges in the documents. “Mike told me, ‘If you have an abortion, then we can just go back to the way we were.’ “
“Prior to July 4th, Mike threatened me that if I did not have an abortion, he would end the marriage,” she claims in the documents. “This was not the first time he had threatened a divorce during our marriage, but now, he was using this threat as leverage to force me to have an abortion. In addition, on July 4th, Mike made the following statements to me: ‘I am cutting you off financially Monday morning’; ‘You are paying for everything with your money’; ‘Next time I see you, I don’t want to see your stomach’; and ‘You have a choice, you can choose. Have an abortion or go back to Wisconsin, but you are not taking Ben.’ “
“He continued to threaten me, demanding to see bank statements showing I paid for an abortion and the flight information to and from Oahu for the medical procedure,” she alleges in the documents.
Laura — a former Miss Wisconsin who was crowned Miss America in 2012 — claims in the documents that “while Mike has frequently been verbally abusive towards me during our marriage, in recent weeks, he has become enraged, due to the fact I am pregnant with our second child.”
“Mike told me many times that he did not want us to have a second child. He also repeatedly told me throughout our marriage, and prior to our marriage, that he knew he would ‘have to have’ one child with me because I was 26-years-old when we got married, did not yet have any children, and he knew I wanted to have a family,” she says in the documents. “Mike, however, being 55-years old, did not want to have more than one child together.”
On July 5, Laura alleges that “Mike was even more angry than he was on July 4th.” She claims that day that she asked a friend to come and stay with her and Ben at the home as Mike was staying at another one of their homes in Hawaii. The next day, on July 6, Laura claims Mike returned and “angrily entered Ben’s bedroom looking for my cellphone.”
She asserts that Mike “forcibly grabbed my phone out of my hands” and then “exited the bedroom, and rushed to the top of the stairs.”
She followed him in an attempt to get her cell phone back, she claims in the documents, “and he yelled that he was going to ‘shove me down the stairs.’ ” As he descended the stairs, Laura followed, she alleges.
But “just before we got outside of the front door, he grabbed my body, forcibly pinned me up against the wall and held me there. After I broke free, he continued to use his arms and hands to aggressively push me away from him as he walked outside the door, still not returning my phone. Then he walked towards his pick-up truck parked outside in our driveway, shouting ‘I’m going to punch your face in,’ ” she claims in the documents.
As he entered the truck, Laura claims she was “pleading with him not to leave me and Ben at the house without access to my phone” as she “stood on the outside running board/footstep directly below the driver-side door.” She alleges that Mike proceeded to “put the truck in reverse and began to back up, and firmly said, ‘You’re f—–ed.’ He then stopped the car suddenly, which nearly made me fall off the running board and caused the swinging door to almost close on me. At this point, Mike forcefully shoved me off of the running board, closed the car door and drove away with my cellphone in his possession.”
“I was extremely traumatized from the incident and started crying hysterically,” she claims in the documents. “Our unborn child and I could have been severely injured if I had fallen off the truck’s running board or run over the wheels of the truck.”
Laura then says she “began to scream for help” and a neighbor across the street responded and proceeded to call police before driving her and Ben to a “nearby friend’s house.” The friend then drove her to the police station, where she spoke to an officer about the alleged incident.
On July 6 and 7, Laura took photographs of her injuries from the alleged incident, which captured “bruises on the inside of my arm, a scratch on my neck, and a large tear in the dress that I was wearing on July 6th, all of which were caused by Mike’s violent behavior on July 6th.”
Days later, Laura says that “on Monday, July 8th, I went to my OBGYN to make sure our unborn baby was in good health and to otherwise check the injuries I had suffered.”
She alleges, “I am afraid of Mike. I am afraid he will continue to act erratically towards me, verbally and physically, and in the presence of Ben. I have been hiding in a hotel for the past several days with Ben, and want to be able to return home without fear for myself, my son and my unborn child.”
In addition, Laura claims that “over the past several years of our marriage, Mike has made many emotionally derogatory and demeaning comments designed to demonstrate his financial coercive control over me such as repeatedly insinuating that he would destroy me with his wealth and power” and that she has “spent time in therapy discussing the effects upon me of Mike’s demanding and denigrating comments.”
The filing comes nearly a week after Mike filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, according to court documents obtained by The Blast. The filing lists their separation date as July 7 and also states that Mike has a prenuptial agreement with Laura.
According to Laura’s declaration, she states that on July 10, she “learned through the media” about Mike’s divorce filing.
The pair met in 2012 when she was a participant in the Miss America pageant and he was a judge, Laura states in her declaration.
They wed on April 6, 2014 at his Malibu home in a ceremony officiated by the show’s host, Chris Harrison.
In addition to The Bachelor, Fleiss is the creator of spin-offs The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelor Winter Games.
If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Related content:
The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss files for divorce from wife of 5 years
Ellen Pompeo slams The Bachelor creator: ‘We don’t attack successful women on our network’
Bachelorette creator addresses why runner-up Peter Kraus won’t be The Bachelor
Chris Harrison hosts the veteran reality romance series. Will you accept this rose?
Episode Recaps
Previous
S23 E12 Recap
The Bachelor season finale recap: ‘A gentleman never kisses and tells’
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E11 Recap
The Bachelor season finale recap part 1: ‘I don’t know if I’m making the right decision’
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E10 Recap
The Bachelor: The Women Tell All: A recap in 11 GIFs
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E9 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Colton’s Fantasy Suite date turns into a nightmare
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E8 Recap
The Bachelor hometown dates recap: ‘You don’t microwave relationships’
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E7 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Cassie and Caelynn in the crosshairs
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E6 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Once, twice, three times a red flag
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E5 Recap
The Bachelor recap: A tussle in Thailand
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E4 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Things get serious in Singapore
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E3 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Beauty and the beef
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E2 Recap
The Bachelor recap: ‘Maybe you’re the first gay Bachelor!’
By Kristen Baldwin
S23 E1 Recap
The Bachelor season 23 premiere recap: Playing the V card
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E12 Recap
The Bachelor: After the Final Rose recap: ‘I hope Lauren gets out’
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E11 Recap
The Bachelor finale recap: ‘Are you f—ing kidding me?’
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E10 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Everyone says ‘I love you’
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E9 Recap
The Bachelor recap: ‘Women Tell All’
By Jodi Walker
S22 E8 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Homecoming apart
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E7 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Doom with a view
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E6 Recap
The Bachelor recap: It’s two-on-one time!
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E5 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Pins and needles
By Kristen Baldwin
S22 E4 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Man vs. Child
By Samantha Highfill
S22 E3 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Worst in Show
By Samantha Highfill
S22 E2 Recap
The Bachelor recap: Beautiful (Bumper Car) Trauma
By Samantha Highfill
Next