Amidst the ongoing legal battle over their French winery, Château Miraval, Angelina Jolie’s legal team has filed a motion alleging that her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, was abusive towards her even before the highly publicized 2016 plane incident that led to their divorce.
In a recent court filing on April 4, 2024, Jolie’s lawyers assert that Pitt’s history of physical abuse towards Jolie began before the September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles. The filing claims that during this flight, Pitt’s alleged abuse extended to the children, prompting Jolie to leave him immediately.
The motion seeks to release communications that would purportedly demonstrate Pitt’s refusal to allow Jolie to sell her share of the winery unless she agreed to a more stringent non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Jolie’s legal team argues that this refusal is indicative of Pitt’s attempt to suppress information related to his alleged misconduct.
In response to these allegations, a representative for Pitt declined to comment, while a source familiar with the litigation dismissed the claims as “misleading, inaccurate, and/or irrelevant information” introduced by Jolie’s team as a distraction tactic.
The legal dispute over the winery stems from Pitt’s lawsuit against Jolie and her former company, Nouvel, for selling her half of the winery without his consent. Pitt accuses Jolie of intentionally keeping him uninformed about the sale to Tenute del Mondo, a move he believes jeopardizes the reputation of the business he helped build.
The allegations of abuse, which resurfaced in the context of the winery lawsuit, have been met with skepticism from Pitt’s side, with sources close to him refuting the claims and characterizing Jolie’s actions as attempts to garner attention at the expense of their family.
Despite the tumultuous legal proceedings, Pitt and Jolie were declared legally single by a judge in 2019. They continue to co-parent their six children: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Vivienne and Knox.
