Brad Pitt has accused ex-wife Angelina Jolie of using physical abuse claims against him as a “smokescreen” in the ongoing $350m legal battle over their vineyard.
Pitt, 60, and Jolie, 48, are locked in an ongoing court battle over Jolie’s sale of her stake in their French winery, Chateau Miraval, for $64m (£50.65m) to Russian businessman Yuri Shefler in 2021.
In a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Jolie alleged Pitt had a history of being physically abusive before a well-documented row on a flight from France to Los Angeles in September 2016.
In the submissions to Los Angeles County Superior Court, lawyers for Jolie said: “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.”
Pitt has denied any allegations of physical abuse.
A source close to Pitt who is familiar with the litigation said: “This is a pattern of behaviour - whenever there is a decision that goes against the other side they consistently choose to introduce misleading, inaccurate and/or irrelevant information as a distraction.
“There was a lengthy custody trial that involved the entire history of their relationship and a judge who heard all the evidence still granted him 50/50 custody."
Lawyers for the Maleficent actress on Thursday said in the filings that she had walked out of early talks to sell the winery to Pitt over an “unconscionable” non-disclosure agreement which would have been attached, which was dubbed an attempt to “control” her.
But Pitt’s lawyers fired back, claiming Jolie’s NDA objection was a cover story to “rationalise” her betrayal of him.
The filings stem from Pitt’s 2022 lawsuit, in which he alleged that he and Jolie had an agreement that neither would sell their stake in the winery without the other’s consent.
In a court submission in June 2023, he alleged that Jolie’s sale of her stake in the winery was “vindictive” after an “adverse custody ruling.”
The exes bought the 1,300-acre Miraval estate in Provence, Southern France, in 2008 and married there in 2014.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016 and they were declared legally single in 2019.
A joint custody arrangement for their children, Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 15, was established in 2021.
