Lee Daniels Settles Sean Penn's $10M Lawsuit With A Heartfelt Apology & Charity Donations

Lee Daniels Settles Sean Penn’s $10M Lawsuit

Loose lips sink ships and Lee Daniels remarks about Sean Penn being a “wife beater” almost cost him $10 million.

According to Page Six, Penn and Daniels have reached a settlement which requires the “Empire” co-creator to issue a public apology and make a considerable donation to Sean’s Haiti charity.

“I am sorry that I have hurt you Sean, and I apologize and retract my reckless statements about you,” Daniels said in a joint statement released Wednesday.

The director had claimed that Penn was a wife beater in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year.

In response to the mea culpa, Penn said, “I accept Lee’s heartfelt apology and appreciate the sincerity with which it was delivered.”

As part of the settlement, Daniels also made an unspecified donation to Penn’s Haitian Relief Organization and praised the Hollywood star as a “brilliant actor” and “humanitarian.”

Daniels went on to say, “I, too, have been the subject of false attacks by others. My most important role is as a father, and it is important to me that my children learn that it is wrong to reference gossip as fact, as I did here. That can be very damaging and hurtful.”

In the September 2015 Hollywood Reporter interview, Daniels discussed his view that “Empire” star Terrence Howard, who has a record of violence against women, “ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some f—in’ demon.”

Just a week after the interview was published, Penn sued Daniels in Manhattan Supreme Court, saying that while he has had “several brushes with the law,” he has never been arrested for or convicted of domestic violence.

Daniels said in his statement that “domestic violence is a very serious issue. My comments were cavalier; it was not my intention to diminish the severity of the issue, but rather to express a view regarding the disparate treatment of men of color in our national conversation.”Then, in December, Madonna submitted a sworn statement to the court denying rumors that Penn hit her with a baseball bat in 1987 when they were married.

Sean Penn worked very hard to clean up his reputation – he made Lee Daniels put some respeck on his name!