Angelina Jolie Says Brad Pitt Attacked Her And Their Children Before She Filed For Divorce

Actor Angelina Jolie alleged in a complaint filed Tuesday that Brad Pitt physically attacked her and their children during a flight on the couple’s private jet from France to California in September 2016, several days before she filed for divorce.

In court documents obtained by The New York Times, Jolie’s lawyers claim Pitt “choked one of the children and struck another in the face.” They also say Pitt began yelling at Jolie in a private bathroom and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her,” and then “grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall.”

Pitt then allegedly “punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom.” The court filings also state that Pitt lunged at one of the children after the child called him a “prick.”

After the FBI investigated the incident, Pitt was cleared of wrongdoing.

The new details emerge after Pitt sued Jolie in February over a winery they once co-owned, alleging that Jolie violated contractual agreements by selling her stake to an “aggressive third-party competitor.” The two had purchased a controlling stake in Château Miraval Winery in Correns, France, in 2008.

Jolie’s lawyers say that she sold her stake in October 2021 to Russian oligarch and Tenute del Mondo owner Yuri Shelfer after Pitt demanded that she sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from talking about their marriage.

Jolie previously declined to share specific details of Pitt’s alleged abuse. In September 2021, while still moving through their divorce battle, Jolie told The Guardian that she feared for the safety of her family during her marriage to Pitt, but stopped short of sharing why.

“I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly,” she told The Guardian in 2021. “It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”

The couple married in August 2014 and have been legally separated since September 2016.

Read the full New York Times piece here.