Angelina Jolie accuses Brad Pitt of abusing her prior to 2016 plane incident in new legal filing
The “War of the Rosé” goes on as actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continue to battle in court following their infamous 2016 split.
The two are still fighting over their shared French winery, and in a new April 4 filing obtained by NBC News, Jolie's legal team has accused Pitt of abusing her prior to the well-documented 2016 private plane incident that ended their relationship.
“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. Jolie then immediately left him,” her legal team claimed in the April 4 filing.
Pitt's team did not comment.
A day after the filing, on April 5, a source close to Pitt told NBC News: "This is a pattern of behavior — 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.”
The allegations come nearly 20 years after Pitt and Jolie first connected in 2004 while making “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
At the time, the two were both firmly embedded in their own family lives: Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston (they split in 2005) and Jolie was a single mom of Maddox, whom she’d adopted from Cambodia in 2002.
But then Pitt and Jolie felt sparks — and went on to become one of the most talked-about celebrity couples of all time.
“Brad was a huge surprise to me,” Jolie told Vogue in 2006 (via People magazine). “Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened.”
After becoming partners, the couple added more children to their brood: Zahara Marley (adopted in 2005), Shiloh Nouve (their first biological child, born in 2006), Pax Thien (adopted from Vietnam in 2007), and twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline (their second and third biological children, born in 2008).
“I was 26 when I became a mother,” Jolie told Vogue in 2023. “My entire life changed. Having children saved me — and taught me to be in this world differently.”
Meanwhile, Pitt said in the 2020 Oscars press room (via People) that he wants his kids to do what makes them happy. “I want them to follow their bliss, follow their passions, whatever they’re most interested in. It’s about guiding as you can.”
So while Pitt and Jolie wouldn’t marry until 2014, as TODAY reported, they were child-centric almost from the beginning. And marriage, surprisingly, changed the relationship, as Jolie told TODAY in 2014.
“We got married with our (six) children and they were part of the ceremony,” she said. “It was all of us agreeing to be together and to just commit to this life together. Not because we had to … because we were absolutely sure we felt that much of a family.”
However, two years after the wedding, Jolie filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
The divorce filing came quickly on the heels of an incident on an airplane. Over the following decade, Pitt and Jolie’s separation was protracted and fractious, involving allegations of judicial interference, a winery and more.
Here’s a timeline of Angeline and Brad Pitt's divorce.
Summer 2016: Angelina Jolie says 'things got bad'
Cracks were appearing in the Jolie/Pitt marriage two years after they tied the knot, as she revealed in a 2017 cover story for Vanity Fair. “Things got bad,” she told the magazine, but clarified to then say “things became difficult.”
In the article she mentioned developing hypertension and Bell’s palsy, in which the muscles on one side of her face began to droop. Acupuncture helped her to recover.
“Sometimes women in families put themselves last, until it manifests in their own health,” she said.
September 2016: The airplane incident
An apparent major break for the family came after an incident on a private aircraft that year.
Details were kept under wraps for years, but NBC News obtained the FBI report of the incident in 2022, following a Freedom of Information / Privacy Act lawsuit brought by “Jane Doe.” (An attorney for “Jane Doe” said that she wouldn’t comment on who the woman was, but noted that the client wanted the records for years “but has been stonewalled and has had to resort to court action to receive needed records.” )
As the FBI report described, Pitt and Jolie were traveling with their children in September 2016, a two-week trip that ended in Los Angeles International Airport. Pitt appeared to take issue with Jolie’s parenting, and when she asked him what was wrong he reportedly said, “That kid looks like a f------ Columbine kid.”
They retreated to the back of the plane to continue the argument. According to the FBI report, Jolie said that Pitt “grabbed her by the head” and shook her, then grabbed her shoulders before punching "the ceiling of the plane" repeatedly. One child saw the altercation and asked Jolie if she was all right, according to the report.
“No, Mommy’s not OK,” Pitt allegedly yelled back. “She’s ruining this family. She’s crazy.”
After further physical interaction between them both, Pitt spilled wine and beer on furniture and Jolie, who was under a blanket with her children, according to the FBI report. When the plane landed, they did not deplane with him. Jolie said Pitt shouted, “F--- you all. I’m f------ leaving you," according to the report.
In a later cross-complaint filed against Pitt in 2022, Jolie gave more details, NBC News reported. According to the filing, Jolie said Pitt “choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and also grabbed her and shook her.
No criminal charges were pursued in the incident, but Jolie filed for divorce on September 19, the Associated Press reported.
November 2016: Brad Pitt cleared of child abuse charges
After the divorce filing, Pitt was investigated by the Department of Child and Family Services, and in November 2016 he was cleared of any wrongdoing, NBC News reported.
In September, Pitt and Jolie had both agreed to a Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) safety plan, which was a temporary custody agreement over their children. They each agreed to individual counseling. Pitt gave up drinking and began spending time in Alcoholics Anonymous, he told the New York Times in 2019.
“I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” he said then.
December 2016 — January 2017: The custody battle gets serious
As the DFCS report was being investigated, Jolie and Pitt began ramping up arguments about custody schedules, as ET reported. Pitt filed for joint custody. Lawyers asked for more therapy sessions for Pitt. Pitt’s lawyers said he wanted to see his children before the end-of-year holidays began.
In December, ET reported that Jolie had been granted physical custody of all six of the children, with Pitt being allowed to have therapeutic visits with the kids (determined by the family therapist), according to ET and The Guardian.
Early in 2017, the soon-to-be-exes released a joint statement saying they agreed to keep the divorce proceedings private, as ET reported.
“The parties and their counsel have signed agreements to preserve the privacy rights of their children and family by keeping all court documents confidential and engaging a private judge to make any necessary legal decisions and to facilitate the expeditious resolution of any remaining issues,” a statement from both actors read. “The parents are committed to act as a united front to effectuate recovery and reunification.”
May 2017: Brad Pitt speaks out, saying his journey is 'self-inflicted'
In one of his first longform interviews since he and Jolie split, Pitt told GQ that he was lonely and spending time with his bulldog Jacques.
“I see where one spouse literally can’t tell their own part in (a split), and is still competing with the other in some way and wants to destroy them, and needs vindication by destruction, and just wasting years on that hatred,” he said. “I don’t want to live that way.”
Meanwhile, Jolie said in a 2017 Vanity Fair story, “We’re all just healing from the events that led to the (divorce) filing…. (The kids have been) very brave.”
August 2018: Angelina Jolie fires back about child support
In 2018, Jolie’s attorney said that Pitt had “paid no meaningful child support since separation,” in a brief from Los Angeles Superior Court that NBC News obtained.
Arrangements around the children’s expenses have been “informal,” the brief said, and indicated that Jolie wanted to obtain a “retroactive child support order.”
April 2019: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are officially single
A judge ruled in April 2019 that the pair's marriage was officially over.
Pitt and Jolie and requested a bifurcated judgement, ET said, which gave them both single status while the divorce was finalized.
January 2021: 'The War of the Rosé' begins
Among the holdings Pitt and Jolie shared, Chateau Miraval Winery was one of the most personal. The pair purchased the property for around €25 million Euros in 2008, and it later became a major flashpoint in their ongoing battles.
A Vanity Fair article in June 2023 revealed that Jolie contacted Pitt in January 2021 about her decision to sell her interest in the winery because it was a business focused on alcohol.
“Even now impossible to write this without crying,” Jolie wrote. “Above all, it is the place we brought the twins home to, and where we were married over a plaque in my mother’s memory. A place…where I thought I would grow old…. But it is also the place that marks the beginning of the end of our family.”
She added, “Miraval for me died September 2016, and everything I have seen in the years since has sadly confirmed that.”
Pitt agreed to pay her $54.5 million to buy her out of Miraval in February — but the transaction wasn’t completed as custody battles reared their head again. Ultimately, Jolie sold her interest to Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler for $67 million, Vanity Fair reported.
May — July 2021: Brad Pitt gets joint custody of children … almost
In May 2021, Pitt was given joint custody of the children in a judge's tentative ruling, NBC News reported.
However, an appeals court ruled in Jolie’s favor a couple of months later, disqualifying the judge from the case. His decisions were vacated.
The Associated Press reported that the appeals court ruled that the judge, John Ouderkirk, was disqualified because he failed to disclose a business relationship with Pitt’s attorneys.
August — October 2022: Winery suits continue, details emerge over 2016 airplane altercation
In August, the FOIPA documents from the FBI report about the 2016 airplane incident were made public.
That October, Jolie included what she described as abusive behavior by him on that plane in the cross-complaint against Pitt about the winery, reported The New York Times.
“(Jolie) has gone to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day,” her 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.”
November — December 2023: Zahara Jolie goes to college, Jolie plans a move overseas
Now 18, Pitt and Jolie’s daughter Zahara went to Spelman College in 2022, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha as her sorority — emphatically indicating that she was Zahara Marley Jolie — not Pitt — when announcing her choice, according to Essence.
In a chat with The Wall Street Journal in December, Jolie revealed she intended to leave Los Angeles and spend more time at a home she has in Cambodia, crediting the extended divorce proceedings for her decision.
“It’s part of what happened after my divorce,” she told the newspaper. “I lost the ability to live and travel as freely. I will move when I can.”
April 2024: New court filings from Jolie accuse Pitt of physical abuse before the 2016 plane incident
The former couple's ongoing legal dispute over Chateau Miraval has continued into 2024.
Jolie's legal team filed a motion seeking to release communications they said would prove Pitt didn't let Jolie sell her shares of the winery to him unless she agreed to a “more onerous” and “expansive” nondisclosure agreement.
Her legal team claimed in the April 4 filing: “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. Jolie then immediately left him."
Her team went on to say in the filing that Jolie did not press charges for the prior abuse, of which the documents do not outline, “as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused.”
Her filing also alleges that Pitt refused to seek domestic violence counseling.
Pitt's team did not comment on the April 4 filing, though Pitt's team has previously denied the allegations and a 2016 DCFS investigation into Pitt cleared him of wrongdoing, NBC News reported at the time.
A source close to Pitt told NBC News that this "pattern of behavior" happens when "there is a decision that goes against the other side" and "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.”
In a statement to TODAY.com, Jolie’s lawyer pointed to the ongoing lawsuit and allegedly “onerous” NDA as the reason for bringing her allegations to light.
“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,” Jolie’s attorney, Paul Murphy, said in the statement. “After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
