In a new court filing, Angelina Jolie has accused her ex-husband Brad Pitt of having a “history of physical abuse” against her before their alleged plane 2016 altercation. The 48-year-old actress’ legal team filed paperwork on Thursday, April 4, against the 60-year-old actor.
“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,” the Salt actress’ lawyers said, according to documents obtained by multiple outlets. “Jolie then immediately left him,” her lawyers added in the paperwork.
Jolie’s attorneys also claimed that Pitt wanted her to “contractually bind herself” to silence after he found out in 2021 that she submitted a sealed filing of their legal situation containing “emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony and other evidence.”
In a statement to Page Six, Jolie’s lawyer Paul Murphy alleged, “Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA. 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.”
Pitt has not publicly responded to Jolie’s new court filing.
In October 2022, Jolie accused her ex-husband of physically abusing her and their children on a flight back to California in 2016. According to court documents obtained by Hollywood Life from the Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie claimed that she and Pitt got into an argument in the bathroom of the plane, where he allegedly “grabbed [her] by the head and shook her.” He then allegedly pushed her against the wall of the bathroom and “punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times.”
One of Pitt and Jolie’s six children — Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne — defended Jolie, and Pitt allegedly “choked one of his children and struck another.” In the documents at the time, the child’s name was redacted. Jolie also accused Pitt of “pouring beer and red wine on the children.”
At the time, the F.B.I. had opened an investigation into the incident. However, Pitt did not face criminal charges. He also vehemently denied Jolie’s claims. A rep for the Oscar winner told CNN in 2022 that Jolie’s “story continues to evolve each time she tells it with new, unsubstantiated claims. Brad has accepted responsibility for what he did but will not for things he didn’t do. These new allegations are completely untrue.”
Pitt and Jolie were married from 2014 to 2019.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.