Mel Gibson was seen taking his 16-year-old daughter, Lucia, to an upscale restaurant in the Los Angeles suburbs this week.
The 70-year-old actor shares Lucia with Russian musician Oksana Grigorieva, 56. The pair dated from 2009 until their highly publicized split in 2010.
Following their breakup, Grigorieva accused Gibson of domestic violence, setting off a lengthy legal dispute that ended with him entering a no-contest plea to misdemeanor battery.
His Hollywood career was severely damaged after audio recordings emerged in which he made a racist remark during a telephone conversation with Grigorieva.
Despite that history, Gibson appeared to share a close relationship with Lucia, the youngest of his nine children, as he took her out for Italian food on Thursday.
Lucia, who now nearly matches her father’s 5ft 10in height, was photographed alongside him as they arrived at Mediterraneo, a farm-to-table restaurant in Westlake Village.
The Daily Mail has contacted Gibson’s representatives for comment.
Mel Gibson was spotted taking his 16-year-old daughter Lucia to an upscale restaurant in the Los Angeles suburbs this week
Gibson, who has nine children, appeared to enjoy a warm outing with his youngest daughter as they headed out for Italian food on Thursday
Lucia, who now nearly matches Gibson’s 5ft 10in height, was seen arriving with him at the farm-to-table restaurant Mediterraneo in Westlake Village
Gibson has returned to America after he finished directing the Italian shoot of the sequel to his 2004 self-produced blockbuster The Passion of the Christ.
Entitled The Resurrection of the Christ, the two-part follow-up is slated for release over the next two years and features Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen as Jesus, a role played in the original picture by Sound of Freedom star Jim Caviezel.
Gibson struck up his romance with Lucia’s mother while he was separated from his wife Robyn Moore, the mother of his seven oldest children.
Moore and Gibson married in 1980, the year after he catapulted to stardom in Mad Max, and split in 2009 before finalizing their divorce in 2011.
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In 2010, the Braveheart star’s relationship with Grigorieva disintegrated into a bruising custody battle over Lucia that eventually grew so rancorous that both parents at one point held restraining orders against each other.
Gibson confessed in legal documents to having slapped Grigorieva once ‘with an open hand’ during a dispute over Lucia, who was then two months old.
He maintained in his court filing that Grigorieva had flown into a ‘hysterical’ state and he struck her in an attempt to make her stop ‘shaking Lucia back and forth,’ as he was worried the newborn would develop ‘shaken baby syndrome.’
They ultimately reached an agreement on joint custody in August 2011, as Gibson’s showbiz career lay in ruins over the ‘pack of n*****s’ recording.
The 70-year-old actor welcomed Lucia with Russian musician Oksana Grigorieva, whom he was involved with from 2009 until their explosive 2010 split. Above, in Paris in 2010
Grigorieva accused Gibson of domestic violence, triggering a rancorous legal drama. Above, in 2009
In 2014, Gibson started dating Rosalind Ross, 36, with whom he welcomed a son called Lars, nine, before their split last year. Above, the couple in 2019
Gibson bringing his two youngest children Lucia and Lars to a 2024 screening of his horror movie Monster Summer at the Directors Guild of America
Defended at the time by his friends Jodie Foster and Whoopi Goldberg, he worked at a gradual comeback that flowered by 2017 into a best picture Oscar nod for Hacksaw Ridge, the World War II drama he directed with Andrew Garfield in the lead.
From 2014 until last year, Gibson was dating equestrian vaulter turned screenwriter Rosalind Ross, 36, with whom he welcomed his now nine-year-old son Lars.
The year he began his relationship with Ross, Gibson rhapsodized to Mario Lopez about the experience of raising Lucia, who at that stage was his youngest child.
‘She’s so cool. It’s amazing. It’s full of wonder… and I’m not a youngster any more. It’s my second daughter. I’m getting a chance to do it better,’ he said on Extra.
His principal piece of advice on fatherhood was for parents to ‘listen,’ he remarked, quipping that his own children ‘actually tell me what to do.’