The family of Christian Bale have revealed that the has not spoken to them in over a year and a half following a dispute that resulted in his arrest on suspicion of assault.

It has never been quite clear what caused the row between the family members at London’s Dorchester hotel on the eve of The Dark Knight premiere in 2008.

Christian’s sister Sharon explained the events of that evening:

“We walked into his suite and he didn’t say much. It was clear that he was angry for some reason. He left the room to take a phone call, so we sat down and I took out some muffins that I’d made and started making up a bottle for the baby while we waited.

“Then he walked in and immediately started shouting at us. He was saying how angry he was that we had left the arrangements to the last minute  -  which made no sense because we’d been planning it for weeks with all the people around him. Perhaps the messages weren’t getting through, we just don’t know.

“He was screaming at Mum: “It’s not on! It’s not on!” He kept saying it was rude. We weren’t being respectful.

“I don’t know whether he had just found out I couldn’t stay for the premiere, but he was saying I hadn’t respected the plans that had been made.”

Christian’s mother Jenny went on to say:

“He just exploded with anger like I have never seen. He never gave us a chance to find out what it was all about before he frog-marched us out of his suite. He had his face to mine and he was bellowing and swearing about how I never called or emailed.

“His wife, who I have met a few times and always got on with, was standing across the room. I kept asking her, ‘Why is he doing this?’ but she just shrugged. I was shaking. It was so frightening. It didn’t make any sense. It probably went on for about ten minutes before he physically marched us out of the room and into the lift.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, his mother said:

“He’s not talking to us, it’s not the other way round. He has changed his phone numbers, and he ignores the letters, emails and birthday cards I send. As awful as that night was, and although I rack my mind every day about what could have made him behave like that, I’d happily forget it happened if we could go back to being a family.

“That’s the most important thing. We miss Christian terribly. But it’s been more than 18 months now and it’s hard to see how this will ever end.”

You may remember Christian losing his temper with a crew member on the set of Terminator Salvation, last year. You can listen to his rant here – WARNING: It is NOT suitable for work or if you are around children.

I have to say, maybe there’s more to it, but I really hopes he can sort out his apparent anger issues. Who loses it like that?!