By Jack Queen
(Reuters) – Angelina Jolie detailed what she described as abusive behavior by ex-husband Brad Pitt in a court filing on Tuesday, escalating a legal battle over a French winery the former couple once shared and revealing new details about the dissolution of their marriage.
The filing in a Los Angeles court alleges that Pitt sought to condition Jolie’s sale of her stake in the winery on a nondisclosure agreement that would have barred her from publicly discussing “Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”
Jolie’s filing describes an episode during a September 2016 private plane flight where Pitt allegedly “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her” before “pushing her into the bathroom wall.” Pitt also “choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” the filing alleges.
Pitt’s lawyers did not immediately respond to inquiries Tuesday.
The filing advances counterclaims against Pitt in a lawsuit he filed against Jolie and her former company in February. Pitt alleges that Jolie’s September 2021 sale of her stake in the Chateau Miraval winery to an international beverage company was unlawful because the pair had agreed they would never sell their interests without the other’s consent.
Jolie said in her Tuesday filing that no such agreement existed and that Pitt had refused to buy her out unless she consented to “an unconscionable gag order” regarding his conduct.
In her filing, Jolie also said the FBI probed the incident on the plane and “concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime.” Pitt has not been charged with a crime, and an FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Amy Stevens and Jonathan Oatis)
