LOS ANGELES – The acrimonious split between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt took an incendiary turn this week, with the actress leveling disturbing new claims about her former husband’s alleged pattern of abusive behavior toward her and their children.
In legal filings submitted Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie accused Pitt of physical abuse dating back years before the couple’s notorious clash aboard a private plane in 2016 – an incident that precipitated their chaotic separation after 12 years together.
The fresh allegations ratchet up the stakes in the former couple’s ongoing court battle over ownership of Chateau Miraval, the French winery and vineyard they purchased together in 2008 as a family home and business venture. Jolie is seeking to compel testimony and evidence from Pitt about the reasons he demanded she sign an expansive non-disclosure agreement before he would buy her out of their joint business interests.
Jolie’s legal team asserts Pitt was desperate to bury details of his “abuse of Ms. Jolie and their children” through the proposed NDA, which would have barred her from speaking publicly about his personal conduct apart from courtroom testimony. They allege this formed the crux of the former couple’s breakdown in negotiations over the winery sale.
“At trial, Jolie will prove through testimony, emails, photographs and other evidence why Pitt was so concerned about his own misconduct that he blew up his own deal to purchase Jolie’s interest in Miraval because she refused to agree to his new, expansive NDA,” the filing states.
Pitt has not directly responded to the latest claims by his ex-wife. A representative for the actor said they could not comment on matters before the court.
However, in legal papers from last year, Pitt’s lawyers characterized Jolie’s previous allegations about abusive behavior aboard the 2016 flight as lacking credibility. They denied he was ever physically abusive toward his children, and said he took responsibility for the turbulent incident but disputed Jolie’s portrayal of events.
The charges and counter-charges lobbed between the camps of the erstwhile celebrity superpowers lay bare the lasting trauma stemming from the disintegration of their marriage and family unit.
Jolie’s new filing, in harrowing terms, alleges that “Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles.” No further details are provided about the purported prior incidents.
The document states that after the plane incident, Jolie held off pursuing charges or other legal recourse because she felt “the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused.”
The 2016 plane ride from France became a flashpoint in the couple’s crumbling relationship after allegations surfaced that Pitt had an angry outburst and clashed with one of his children. An investigation by the FBI was launched but ultimately closed with no charges filed against Pitt.
At the time, Jolie cited the episode as a breaking point that compelled her to file for divorce just days after the plane landed in Los Angeles. Their legal separation stretched into years of internecine courtroom battles over custody of their six children, financial assets and now the fate of their French winery business.
In her latest salvo, Jolie asserts that Pitt’s insistence on the open-ended NDA suggests he harbored darker skeletons about his past conduct that he was determined to keep under wraps.
“Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA,” her lawyer Paul Murphy said in a statement. “By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family.”
The possibility of Pitt, one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men, facing intensive public scrutiny over disturbing personal behavior poses major risks to his reputation and career.
While the actor has largely avoided commenting on the volatile legal wrangling, he did acknowledge in an interview last year that he entered a “Buddhist monastic kind of embrace” after the marriage imploded, reflecting that he had been “trying not to cling too tight” to aspects of his former family life.
For Jolie, the latest filing frames her resistance to signing Pitt’s proposed non-disclosure pact as a crusade to protect her freedom of speech and extract full accountability from her ex-husband.
“After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence,” her attorney Murphy said.
The animosity between the former couple continues to inflict an emotional toll on their six children, now aged between 15 and 21, with Jolie’s legal team saying Pitt’s “unyielding attempts to control and punish Jolie continue to take a huge emotional and financial toll on her and their family.”
In closing, the filing expresses Jolie’s desire that “their family be able to heal and their children be spared further pain and trauma,” adding that “she truly wishes Pitt would want the same too.”
But that hope of reaching an amicable resolution to their long-running legal rift appears increasingly faint. Barring a shocking reconciliation, the former Hollywood golden couple seems destined to remain bitterly entangled, with their sad personal unraveling playing out in full public view.
