In a recent court filing, Angelina Jolie’s legal team asserts that Brad Pitt’s alleged physical abuse began before a reported altercation involving Pitt, Jolie, and their children on a plane in September 2016. The former couple is embroiled in a legal dispute over their French winery, Château Miraval.
Pitt initiated a lawsuit against Jolie in 2022, accusing her of violating contractual agreements after she sold her share of Château Miraval without his knowledge. Jolie’s lawyers countered, alleging that discussions regarding the sale broke down when Pitt allegedly insisted on a nondisclosure agreement that would restrict Jolie from discussing his alleged abuse of her and their children outside of court.
A new motion from Jolie’s legal team aims to release communications that purportedly show Pitt’s refusal to allow Jolie to sell her share of the winery without signing a more stringent nondisclosure agreement.
The filing claims, “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.”
Details of the alleged September 2016 altercation emerged in Jolie’s countersuit filed last year. It asserted that “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her” during the incident, which reportedly began when Pitt accused Jolie of being too deferential to their kids.
According to the countersuit, Pitt allegedly grabbed Jolie, shook her, and pushed her into a bathroom wall before punching the plane’s ceiling. When one of the children intervened, Pitt purportedly lunged at them, prompting Jolie to intervene. The suit alleges Pitt then injured Jolie while attempting to free himself from her grasp, before physically assaulting one of their children.
Following the incident, Jolie arranged separate transportation for herself and the children to a hotel, while Pitt allegedly screamed at her and pushed her down again.
Reports from August 2022 suggest that Jolie anonymously supported a 2016 lawsuit in which the plaintiff accused her “then-husband” of assault on a private plane. Jolie reportedly informed an FBI agent of Pitt’s alleged physical and verbal abuse towards her and their children.
