Entertainment
05th Oct 2022
April Curtin
Angelina Jolie has filed court papers accusing Brad Pitt of drunkenly attacking her and their six children on a private flight, in an alleged incident which encouraged her to file for divorce.
In a lawsuit over Château Miraval – a home and vineyard in the south of France which the actors bought in 2008 – Jolie, 47, claims Pitt, 58, grabbed her by the head and attacked two of their children on board a private jet in 2016.
The actor is then said to have “lunged at his own child” when they tried to verbally intervene, at which point Jolie “grabbed him from behind to stop him”, the court papers claim.
“To get Jolie off his back, Pitt threw himself backwards into the airplane’s seats injuring Jolie’s back and elbow,” the filing continues.
“The children rushed in and all bravely tried to protect each other,” it adds, “Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face.”
Ms Jolie’s lawyers say she and the children, who were aged 8 to 15 at the time, “sat still and silent under blankets” for the rest of the journey.
“Pitt periodically emerged from the back of the plane to yell and swear at them. At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children, the filing adds.
The Maleficent star’s claims of abusive behaviour by Pitt on the flight, which took place on September 14 2016, have previously emerged in other court papers – including former couple’s divorce settlement.
The incident was investigated by the FBI in 2016 but authorities didn’t press charges – a decision which Jolie reportedly sued them for.
Pitt has sued Jolie, arguing that he and his former wife had agreed not to sell their stakes in the estate without the permission of the other. He claims she decided to sell her stake in the estate to a Russian oligarch in an attempt to “undermine” his investment and cause “gratuitous harm” to him, after he had “poured money and sweat equity into the wine business”.
But his ex-wife disputes this – blaming Pitt for ending negotiations over purchasing her shares of the property.
Jolie’s decision to sell her stake in the property was partly because of her “growing increasingly uncomfortable with continuing to participate in an alcohol-related business, given the impact of Pitt’s acknowledged problem of alcohol abuse on their family,” her lawyers claim.
In 2019, Pitt told the New York Times he had joined Alcoholics Anonymous after splitting from Jolie.
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