Halle Berry, ex Gabriel Aubry feud over daughter’s hair

Their 6-year-old’s hair is the latest point of contention in Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry’s contentious shared custody arrangement.

The Oscar-winning actress took ex-boyfriend Aubry, the father of her daughter Nahla, back to court Monday because he allegedly had the child’s hair straightened and colored, TMZ and E! News reported.

Though Berry didn’t appear in court, her attorney accused the French-Canadian model of straightening Nahla’s curly mane and lightening it with highlights in an attempt to make her appear less African American, the reports said.

The “X-Men: Days of Future Past” star, now married to French actor Olivier Martinez, had lawyer Steve Kolodny appear in court to argue her case, TMZ said, and a judge decided that neither parent could alter Nahla’s hair color or texture and ruled that her hair be allowed grow back naturally.

Berry, 48, and Aubry, 39, who dated for two years before splitting in 2010, have joint custody of Nahla and have been embroiled in bitter court and physical battles over her care since then. In November 2012, Aubry was arrested after getting into a fistfight with Berry’s then-fiance, Martinez, and just last month, Berry reportedly moved to reduce her child-support payments to the unemployed model from $16,000 a month to less than $4,000 to motivate him to get a job.

Back in 2011, at the height of their custudy dispute, the mixed-race actress told Ebony magazine (via E!) that she wanted her daughter to choose how she’s identified but considered Nahla to be black. Aubry is white.

“I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That’s how I identified myself,” Berry said at the time. “But I feel like she’s black. I’m black and I’m her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory.”

The actress was referring to the controversial legal and sociological notion of the “one-drop rule,” pre-dating the civil rights movement, by which any person with even “one drop” of blood from a black ancestor was deemed to be black.

“If you’re of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself, and I think that’s often hard for us to do,” she continued. “I identify as a black woman, but I’ve always had to embrace my mother and the white side of who I am too.

“By choosing, I’ve often [wondered], ‘Well, would that make her feel like I’m invalidating her by choosing to identify more with the black side of myself?’”

Berry’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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