Angelina Jolie's lawyers claim Brad Pitt's 'physical abuse' started before 2016 plane incident

The legal battle between exes Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt over their formerly shared winery continues, and neither side is holding back.

In a new legal filing Thursday that was obtained by PEOPLE, Jolie's lawyers allege that Pitt physically abused her, and that the abuse was not limited to the 2016 plane incident that made headlines in recent years.

"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's lawyers allege in the new court document. "Jolie then immediately left him."

Representatives for Pitt and Jolie did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment on this new allegation. Pitt has denied any abuse in the past.

In February 2022, Pitt sued Jolie for selling her share in the French vineyard Chateau Miraval — which they had purchased together in 2008, and where they were married in 2014 — without his approval. Later that year, Jolie countersued, claiming she had tried to sell her share of the vineyard to Pitt first but that negotiations fell apart after his team insisted that she sign a nondisclosure agreement that would prevent her from speaking publicly about the 2016 plane incident.

Jolie and her lawyers have previously alleged that during a flight on the family's private plane in 2016, Pitt physically assaulted Jolie and their children. Both the FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services investigated the alleged incident. The latter ruled that Pitt did not abuse the children, and the FBI declined to bring any criminal charges against the actor.

In response to Jolie's attorneys' filing on Thursday, Pitt's attorneys filed a motion on Friday asking Jolie to disclose any other nondisclosure agreements she entered into with third parties, including her personal staff.

"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,'" Pitt's attorneys stated in legal documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly. "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."

The documents continued, "To the extent that Jolie requested this third party's silence about her family or homelife, 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… 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."

A judge declared Pitt and Jolie legally single in 2019, and the former spouses share joint custody of their six children: Maddox, 22; Pax, 20; Zahara, 19; Shiloh, 17; and 15-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.

[This article has been updated to include Pitt's attorneys' filing on Friday.]

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Angelina Jolie details abuse allegations against Brad Pitt in countersuit over shared winery
• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's heated confrontation during 2016 plane incident revealed in FBI documents
• Brad Pitt sues Angelina Jolie for selling her stake in rosé vineyard where they married