In 2005, Brando pleaded no contest to spousal abuse of his then-wife Deborah and was sentenced to probation.

The 12-year custody battle and his mother's uncontrollable temper due to her abuse of drugs and alcohol significantly affected young Christian.

[3] Marlon was a distant father and spent little time with young Christian, who was raised by nannies and servants.

Years later, while commenting on his childhood, Christian said, "The family kept changing shape, I'd sit down at the breakfast table and say, 'Who are you?

'"[2] In 1972, while his father was abroad in France filming Last Tango in Paris, Christian was kidnapped by his mother, who took him from school, then brought him to a gang of hippie friends in Baja California, Mexico.

He ran away from home to Washington state to move in with family friends, which his father ultimately approved and supported.

As a child, Christian had two small roles in movies, in The Secret Life of an American Wife and I Love You, Alice B.

In an interview with The Times, Brando said that later revelations about Cheyenne's mental health had made him question whether she was ever beaten by Drollet.

Without Cheyenne's testimony, prosecutors felt they could no longer prove that Drollet's death was premeditated; therefore, Christian was not charged with first-degree murder and was presented with a plea deal.

After heavily publicized pre-trial proceedings, Brando pleaded guilty to manslaughter and spent five years in prison.

Then, in 1995, a year before Christian was released from prison, she died by suicide by hanging herself at her mother's house in Tahiti at age 25 after losing custody of her son.

[1][9] Conditional on his release, he was accepted and enrolled in the state community college system in southern New Hampshire.

Testimony introduced during the criminal pre-trial hearings and the subsequent civil trial attempted to implicate Brando in the murder, suggesting that he had the same motive as Blake to have Bakley killed.

[12] According to trial testimony, days before her death, Bakley continued to claim Brando was the father of her child.

[10] Dianne Mattson testified in court that Brando became enraged, and at one point said that "somebody should put a bullet in that bitch's head".

[13] Brando was called as a witness in Blake's civil trial but refused to testify, invoking his Fifth Amendment constitutional rights.

Brando pleaded no contest to charges of spousal abuse involving Deborah in January 2005.

He claimed that she broke into his home and beat him because he wanted to annul their marriage only 10 weeks after exchanging vows.