BRAD Pitt has accused ex-wife Angelina Jolie of dragging up physical abuse claims against him in the ongoing legal war over their French winery.
Sources close to the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star blasted Angelina after she filed bombshell legal documents on Thursday.
The Maleficent actress claimed in the filing that Brad had been physically abusive towards her well before the fracas on a September 2016 flight from France to Los Angeles that ended their marriage.
The accusation came as Brad, 60, and Angelina, 48, are locked in an acrimonious $350 million court battle over her decision to secretly sell her stake in their Chateau Miraval vineyard and home for $64m to Russian booze tycoon Yuri Shefler in 2021.
In Thursday’s filing, Angelina claimed she walked out of earlier talks to sell the winery to Brad for $54 million because he had tried to make her sign an “unconscionable” non-disclosure agreement to gag her.
Pitt’s lawyers fired back less than 24 hours later, telling the Los Angeles Superior Court that Jolie’s NDA objection was really just a cover story to “rationalize” her betrayal of him.
His legal team filed a motion asking Jolie to disclose other NDAs she entered into with third parties, which they say could undermine her defense.
A source close to the actor told The U.S. Sun that Angelina's claims were an attempt to distract from the central issues in the Chateau Miraval case.
"This case isn’t about what took place on a plane in 2016," the friend said.
“It’s about whether they had an agreement not sell their interests in the winery and family home without the other’s consent.
“That’s what Brad and his team are focused on, and so far the legal momentum has been on their side.
“The NDA Jolie was asked to sign is a standard business contract designed to protect the asset being sold - in this case her stake in Chateau Miraval.
“It's unclear why she finds this so unconscionable when her own lawyers suggested a mutually binding gagging clause as part of their divorce just a few months later.”
In their filing on Thursday, Angelina's lawyers said, “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.”
The exes bought the 1,300-acre Miraval estate in Provence, Southern France, in 2008 and married there in 2014.
She signed the deal with Shefler - whose business empire owns the Stolichnaya vodka brand - shortly after a judge granted Brad 50/50 custody of their children as part of their bitter divorce.
The NDA Jolie was asked to sign is a standard business contract designed to protect the asset being sold - in this case her stake in Chateau Miraval.
Source close to Brad Pitt
It allegedly breached an agreement that she would offer Brad first refusal and not sell without his consent.
Brad’s lawyer John Berlinski argued in the legal documents filed today and seen by The U.S. Sun that any NDAs Angelina had asked other parties to sign would show whether she is telling the truth about why she withdrew from negotiations to sell her share of Chateau Miraval to Brad.
“The scope, terms, and subject matter covered by the NDAs that Jolie has signed or asked a third party to sign are probative of whether Jolie truly withdrew from the negotiations with Pitt because of the NDA he requested, as she asserts," Berlinski wrote.
“By way of example only, if Jolie has required others to sign NDAs that were at least as broad as the one she claims was so ‘unconscionable’ here, it would severely undermine her claimed excuse for terminating negotiations with Pitt and covertly negotiating with Stoli.
“Nor is the existence of these documents speculative.
“Jolie adamantly refuses to produce the many other NDAs that she signed or requested from others during the relevant time period, along with related documents, presumably because she knows they will severely undermine her defenses.”
The court was shown an April 2021 letter from Angelina's legal team that included her own draft non-disparagement agreement.
A further letter from her divorce lawyers six months after she pulled out of the sale suggested an even broader NDA as part of the former Hollywood power couple’s divorce.
“If Jolie conditioned her continued employment of an individual on that individual’s agreement to an NDA covering what they witnessed in her home—including her treatment of her children and Pitt—that would be highly probative of whether she truly believed the provision requested by Pitt was an ‘unconscionable gag order,'" Brad’s filing added.
“The same is true with respect to any NDA between Jolie and any third party with whom she is in a relationship or who has assisted with the care of the couple’s children
“To the extent that Jolie requested this third party’s silence about her family or home life, particularly in a circumstance where there was no business justification, it would speak volumes about whether Jolie actually viewed Pitt’s requested NDA, which was linked to the Miraval business, as the deal-ender she subsequently alleged it to be.”
For her part, Angelina argues that NDAs between her and third parties are “not relevant.”
In recent months Brad has scored a series of legal victories in the so-called War of the Rosés.
It included a judgment in Luxembourg that handed him back control of the award-winning vineyard pending further hearings.
The Luxembourg court provisionally stripped Shefler, 56, of some of the shares he bought from Angelina, effectively making Brad the majority shareholder.
A French court also sided with Brad over documents seized by bailiffs in a raid.
And Angelina's’ efforts to dismiss Brad’s breach of contract claim against her in California were also rejected.
Brad has asked the Los Angeles Superior Court to unwind the sale completely, with the arguments over NDAs forming part of that case.
A hearing on disclosure will take place on May 16. A full trial is not expected this year.
