Angelina Jolie‘s legal team alleges in a new court filing that Brad Pitt‘s alleged physical abuse started before an alleged altercation took place between Pitt, Jolie and their children on a plane in September 2016. The former couple is in an ongoing legal battle over their French winery Château Miraval.
Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie in 2022 accusing her of violating “contractural rights” after she sold her half of Château Miraval without his knowledge. Jolie’s lawyers claimed in the countersuit that discussions with Pitt’s team about selling her side of the company broke down after he allegedly demanded she sign “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”
A new motion filed by Jolie’s lawyers seeks to release communications the legal team claim prove that Pitt would not allow Jolie to sell her share of the winery to him unless she agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement that was “more onerous” and “expansive.”
Popular on Variety
The filing includes the claim: “While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him.”
Pitt’s representatives did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.
In the countersuit Angelina Jolie’s legal team filed last year, new details about the alleged September 2016 altercation emerged. The suit claimed that “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her” during the altercation. Jolie’s lawyer stated the dispute started when Pitt accused her of being “too deferential” to their kids. The two allegedly started fighting in the plane’s bathroom.
“Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall,” the countersuit read. “Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom.”
The countersuit alleged that Pitt attempted to get physical with one of their kids after the child came to Jolie’s defense.
“When one of the children verbally defended Jolie, Pitt lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him,” the countersuit read. “To get Jolie off his back, Pitt threw himself backwards into the airplane’s seats injuring Jolie’s back and elbow. The children rushed in and all bravely tried to protect each other. Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face. Some of the children pleaded with Pitt to stop. They were all frightened. Many were crying.”
Jolie “arranged for separate transportation at the airport” to bring her and the children to a hotel without Pitt, the suit continued. “She then went to wake Pitt up and told him that she and the children were going to a hotel. Pitt once again screamed at her, and pushed her down yet again.”
As reported in August 2022, Jolie was behind an anonymous 2016 lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleged being assaulted by her “then-husband” on a private plane. The actor told an FBI agent that Pitt “physically and verbally assaulted” her and their children.
