10/4/22, 4:01 PM Angelina Jolie Details Abuse Allegations Against Brad Pitt in Countersuit - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/movies/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-lawsuit.html

Angelina Jolie Details Abuse Allegations Against Brad Pitt in Countersuit

In court papers related to a legal battle over a French winery they once owned together, she claims that he was abusive to her
and their children during a 2016 plane ride.
By Julia Jacobs
Oct. 4, 2022, 2:22 p.m. ET

Sign up for California Today  The news and stories that matter to

Californians (and anyone else interested in the state), delivered weekday
mornings. Get it sent to your inbox.

Angelina Jolie filed a cross complaint against her ex-husband Brad Pitt on Tuesday, disclosing new details about what she
described in court papers as abusive behavior by him on a private plane in 2016 that led to the dissolution 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 broken down over his
demand that she sign “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court
about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”

Her filing goes on to describe an extended physical and verbal outburst in September 2016 as Mr. Pitt, Ms. Jolie and their six
children flew from France to California. “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by
the head and shook her,” the filing states, adding that at one point “he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red
wine on the children.” Federal authorities, who have jurisdiction over flights, investigated the incident but declined to bring
criminal charges. Days after the plane trip, Ms. Jolie filed for divorce.

Lawyers for Mr. Pitt did not immediately return several phone calls and emails seeking his response on Tuesday. In 2016,
unnamed people close to Mr. Pitt were quoted in various publications saying that he had not been abusive toward his children.

The decoupling of Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt has stretched on for years, drawn out by a court battle for custody of their children
and, more recently, a lawsuit instigated by Mr. Pitt over the French winery, Château Miraval, that the couple bought more than
a decade ago. Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit, filed this year, accused his ex-wife of violating his “contractual rights” when she sold her half
of the company to a subsidiary of Stoli Group without his approval.

Ms. Jolie’s cross complaint said she only sold her stake elsewhere after talks broke down over his demand for a nondisclosure
agreement. Her filing states that the F.B.I. agent who investigated allegations that Mr. Pitt physically assaulted Ms. Jolie and
their children on the plane in 2016 had “concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime
for his conduct that day.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/movies/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-lawsuit.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes 1/3
10/4/22, 4:01 PM Angelina Jolie Details Abuse Allegations Against Brad Pitt in Countersuit - The New York Times

The Château Miraval property, which is near Brignoles, in the south of France, in
2008. Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press

A redacted F.B.I. report on the case, which was reported on by several news outlets in August and later obtained by The New
York Times, states that the agent provided the United States Attorney’s Office “copies of a probable cause statement related to
this incident.”

“After reviewing the document, representative of the United States Attorney’s Office discussed the merits of this investigation
with the case agent,” the report said. “It was agreed by all parties that criminal charges in this case would not be pursued due
to several factors.”

The F.B.I. report described Ms. Jolie as “conflicted on whether or not to be supportive of charges” related to the case.

Sign up for the Movies Update Newsletter  A weekly roundup of movie

reviews, news, stars and awards-season analysis. Get it sent to your
inbox.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Thom Mrozek, declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I.
did not immediately return requests for comment.

“She has gone to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day,” Ms.
Jolie’s lawyers wrote in the cross complaint. “But 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, Pitt forced Jolie to publicly defend herself on
these issues for the first time.”

According to Ms. Jolie’s account of the 2016 flight in the court papers, the dispute began when Mr. Pitt accused Ms. Jolie of
being “too deferential” to their children and then began yelling at her in the bathroom. “Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and
shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall,” the filing states.
“Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom.”

When one of the children came to Ms. Jolie’s defense, the court papers said, Mr. Pitt lunged at the child, prompting her to grab
him from behind. Amid the altercation, Mr. Pitt “choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” the suit said.

The 2016 flight has been the subject of news media reports since shortly after it occurred. In November of that year, the F.B.I.
released a statement saying that it had closed its investigation into the flight and that no charges had been filed.

Puck News reported this August that Ms. Jolie had been seeking information about the F.B.I.’s case as an anonymous plaintiff
in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, with the publication including details of the report.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/movies/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-lawsuit.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes 2/3
10/4/22, 4:01 PM Angelina Jolie Details Abuse Allegations Against Brad Pitt in Countersuit - The New York Times

It is unclear whether the heavily redacted F.B.I. report included allegations that Mr. Pitt had choked or struck any of the
children.

Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt met each other on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” a 2005 action movie in which they played married
assassins. In 2008, they purchased a controlling interest in Château Miraval, viewing it as both a family home and business;
several years later, the couple was married on the property.

Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt have six children, now between the ages of 14 and 21.

The French winery, known for its rosé, is at the center of a legal dispute between the divorced couple.

In February, Mr. Pitt sued Ms. Jolie and her former company, alleging that she violated his “contractual expectations” when
she sold her interest in the wine company to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group. According to his lawsuit, the
former couple had an understanding that neither party would sell its share of the winery without the consent of the other.

“Jolie pursued and then consummated the purported sale in secret, purposely keeping Pitt in the dark, and knowingly
violating Pitt’s contractual rights,” his lawsuit alleged.

Last month, Ms. Jolie’s former company, which is now owned by Stoli Group, countersued Mr. Pitt, rebutting his version of
events and his claim that the sale constituted a “hostile takeover.”

In Ms. Jolie’s own countersuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, she said that she opted to sell her share of the
wine business, in part, because she was growing uncomfortable with participating in an alcohol-related business, considering
Mr. Pitt’s “acknowledged problem of alcohol abuse.” Mr. Pitt told The Times in 2019 that after Ms. Jolie filed for divorce, he
spent time in Alcoholics Anonymous and was committed to sobriety.

Her filing said there was no written or verbal understanding like the one Mr. Pitt described, claiming that Mr. Pitt had, in fact,
rejected the idea that there needed to be a plan in case the relationship ended.

In their lawsuits, Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie shared divergent accounts of how negotiations around him buying her portion of the
wine company fell apart.

Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit asserted that Ms. Jolie pulled out of the tentative deal last year after a judge overseeing the custody dispute
issued a ruling against her, prompting her to turn to Stoli Group.

Ms. Jolie’s countersuit claimed, however, that Mr. Pitt had been the one to pull out of the deal after she declined to agree to his
nondisparagement clause, forcing her to turn to another buyer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/movies/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-lawsuit.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes 3/3