Brad Pitt Allegedly Physically Abused Angelina Jolie Before 2016 Plane Incident

More details are emerging about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's past.

In a new April 4 court filing from Jolie—which regards the former couple's ongoing legal battle over their French winery Château Miraval—the Maleficent actress alleges Pitt was physically abusive to her before the infamous plane incident in 2016, after which Jolie filed for divorce. 

"While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family's September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles," the filing reads, "this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him."

Since the couple was declared legally separated in 2019, Pitt and Jolie have shared custody of their six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Vivienne and Knox—who were each between the ages of 8 and 15 at the time of the alleged plane altercation. 

E! News has reached out to reps for both Jolie and Pitt and hasn't received comment. However a source with knowledge of the litigation said, "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."

The source continued, "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."

Regarding the 2016 plane incident, Pitt denied any abuse and the FBI closed its investigation by November 2016 with no charges against Pitt. In the same month, DCFS also concluded its investigation into the incident with no findings of abuse. 

The legal battle over the former couple's Chateau Miraval began in 2022 when Pitt filed a February lawsuit against Jolie for allegedly selling her interests in the winery—a 1300-acre country estate the pair purchased in 2008—without his consent.

Jolie then filed a $250 million countersuit against the Bullet Train actor in September of that year, alleging he devised a campaign to "seize control" of the once-shared estate after their divorce. This lawsuit, obtained by E! News at the time, alleged—as does the April 4 filing—that Jolie only sold her portion of the estate to an outside company when Pitt refused to remove the NDA stipulations he'd included as part of the deal. 

In response to the 2022 filing, a source close to Pitt told E! News that the lawsuit is "yet another rehash and repackaging of old material to try and distract from the other party's own behavior." 

As the new April filing states, "The real reason the Miraval deal failed was Pitt's demand for an NDA to cover up his history of physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their family."

"Thus, to defend herself, Jolie must gather the evidence necessary to demonstrate why Pitt demanded an NDA as a condition of buying Jolie's interest and why that demand ultimately served to scuttle the sale," it continues. "An important part of the 'why' is that Pitt was attempting to hide his history of abuse, control, and coverup."

The suit also expresses Jolie's regret at having to bring these details to light.

"Since Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016," the document states, "she has focused squarely on helping their family heal. As part of that focus, she steadfastly chose not to publicly disclose the details of Pitt's history of abuse and efforts to control her out of a wish to protect their family's privacy, and to respect Pitt as father of their children. It is extremely painful to Jolie to have to defend herself from Pitt's lawsuit."

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