Angelina Jolie details abuse allegations against Brad Pitt in countersuit
On Tuesday, Angelina Jolie filed a cross-complaint against her ex-husband Brad Pitt, revealing new details about what she described in court documents as his abusive behaviour on a private plane in 2016 that led to the end of their marriage.
In a court filing in Los Angeles, filed as part of a legal battle over a winery the prominent Hollywood actors once owned together, lawyers for Ms. Jolie stated that negotiations to sell her share of the business to Mr. Pitt had failed due to his demand that she sign a nondisclosure agreement prohibiting her from discussing Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children outside of court.
Her filing describes an extended physical and verbal outburst that occurred in September 2016 as Mr. Pitt, Ms. Jolie, and their six children were flying from France to California with Mr. Pitt. “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her,” according to the filing, adding that “he poured beer on Jolie and beer and red wine on the children at different times”.
The incident was investigated by federal authorities with jurisdiction over flights, but no criminal charges were brought. Ms. Jolie filed for divorce days after the plane trip.
Anne Kiley, Mr. Pitt’s divorce attorney, stated that Mr. Pitt had accepted responsibility for some past actions but would not accept responsibility for actions he did not commit.
Ms. Kiley also stated that during divorce settlement negotiations this year — which were separate from the negotiations over the winery — a lawyer for Ms. Jolie sent a proposal to Mr. Pitt’s lawyers to try to settle the case, and that one of the preliminary proposals stipulated that neither party could make derogatory remarks about the other in public, except in court. Ms. Kiley reported that Mr. Pitt’s side agreed to discuss the term, but when Ms. Jolie’s side responded, the nondisparagement proposal was not brought up again.
The decoupling of Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt has lasted for years due to a court battle over the custody of their children and, more recently, a lawsuit filed by Mr. Pitt over the French winery, Chateau Miraval, that the couple purchased over a decade ago. This year, Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit alleged that his ex-wife violated his “contractual rights” by selling her half of the company to a Stoli Group subsidiary without his consent.
According to Ms. Jolie’s counterclaim, she sold her stake only after negotiations broke down over his demand for a nondisclosure agreement. According to her filing, the F.B.I. agent who investigated allegations that Mr. Pitt physically assaulted Ms. Jolie and their children on the plane in 2016 “concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime for his conduct that day”.
The agent gave the United States Attorney’s Office “copies of a probable cause statement related to this incident,” according to a redacted F.B.I. report on the case, which was obtained by The New York Times after being reported on by multiple news outlets in August.
The report states, “After reviewing the document, a representative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office discussed the merits of this investigation with the case agent.” All parties agreed that criminal charges would not be pursued in this case due to a number of factors.
According to the F.B.I. report, Ms. Jolie was “conflicted about whether or not to support charges” in relation to the case.
Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment.
In the cross-complaint, Ms. Jolie’s attorneys wrote, “She has gone to great lengths to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt caused the family that day.” “However, when Pitt filed this lawsuit seeking to reassert control over Jolie’s financial life and compel her to rejoin her ex-husband as a frozen-out business partner, he forced Jolie to defend herself publicly for the first time on these issues.”
According to Ms. Jolie’s account of the 2016 flight in court documents, the dispute began when Mr. Pitt accused her of being “too respectful” to their children and then began yelling at her in the restroom. The filing states that “Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall.” “Pitt then repeatedly punched the ceiling of the plane, prompting Jolie to exit the bathroom.”
According to court documents, Mr. Pitt lunged at one of the children who came to Ms. Jolie’s defence, prompting her to grab him from behind. During the altercation, Mr. Pitt, according to the lawsuit, “choked one of the children and struck another in the face.”
The 2016 flight has been the subject of media coverage ever since its occurrence. In November of that year, the F.B.I. issued a statement announcing that its investigation into the flight had been concluded and that no charges had been filed.
In August of this year, Puck News reported Angelina Jolie, as an anonymous plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, had sought information about the F.B.I. case. The publication included specifics about the report.
It is unknown if the heavily redacted F.B.I. report contained allegations that Mr. Pitt choked or struck any of the children.
Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt met on the set of the 2005 action film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” in which they portrayed married assassins. The couple purchased a controlling interest in Chateau Miraval in 2008, viewing it as both a family home and a business; they were married on the property several years later.
Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt have six children between 14 and 21 years of age.
The renowned French rosé winery is at the centre of the divorced couple’s legal dispute.
Mr. Pitt filed a lawsuit against Ms. Jolie and her former company in February, alleging that she violated his “contractual expectations” by selling her stake in the wine company to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group. According to his lawsuit, the ex-couple agreed that neither party would sell its share of the winery without the other’s permission.
Pitt’s lawsuit alleged that Jolie pursued and completed the purported sale in secret, keeping Pitt in the dark on purpose and violating his contractual rights.
Ms. Jolie’s former company, which is now owned by Stoli Group, filed a countersuit against Mr. Pitt last month, disputing his version of events and his claim that the sale constituted a “hostile takeover.”
Ms. Jolie stated in her countersuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, that she chose to sell her share of the wine business in part due to her discomfort with participating in an alcohol-related business given Mr. Pitt’s “acknowledged alcohol abuse problem.” Mr. Pitt told The Times in 2019 that he attended Alcoholics Anonymous and was committed to sobriety after Ms. Jolie filed for divorce.
Angelina Jolie details abuse allegations against Brad Pitt in countersuit
Her filing claimed there was neither a written nor verbal agreement like the one Mr. Pitt described, and that Mr. Pitt had in fact rejected the notion that a plan was necessary in the event the relationship ended.
In their respective lawsuits, Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie provided contradictory accounts of how negotiations surrounding his purchase of her share of the wine company broke down.
According to Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit, Ms. Jolie backed out of the tentative agreement last year after a judge ruling against her in the custody dispute, prompting her to turn to Stoli Group.
However, Ms. Jolie’s countersuit claimed that Mr. Pitt had backed out of the deal after she refused to sign his nondisparagement clause, forcing her to find another buyer.
