Actress Angelina Jolie is accusing her ex-husband Brad Pitt of assaulting two of their children during an argument between the couple on a private jet in 2016, according to court documents leaked in the United States on Tuesday.
• Read also: Physical altercation between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2016
The two Hollywood stars separated that year, and their divorce proceedings have since been bogged down in long legal battles, notably concerning the custody of their children and the sale of a wine estate in the south of France.
In documents filed Tuesday, Angelina Jolie details a violent altercation with her ex-husband during a flight from California to France in September 2016.
Brad Pitt “choked one of the children and punched another” and also “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her” before “pushing her once morest the wall of the toilet”, where the argument had started, according to the documents, quoted by several American media, including the New York Times and Variety.
During this confrontation, the actor, who accused his wife of being “too obsequious” with their offspring, “poured beer” on his ex-wife, and “beer and red wine on the children. “.
When the “Fight Club” actor came to blows, “one of the children verbally defended” his mother. Brad Pitt then “rushed to his own child,” according to the documents, and the actress “grabbed him from behind to stop him.”
“The children intervened,” according to the document. The actor then “choked one of the children and punched another in the face”. Some were “asking him to stop”, others were “crying”.
After this dispute, the investigation carried out by the federal authorities did not lead to any prosecution. Angelina Jolie filed for divorce a few days following that plane trip.
Contacted by AFP, representatives of Brad Pitt had not yet responded Tuesday followingnoon.
According to these new documents submitted to justice, the altercation then influenced the sale of the wine estate, where the couple got married and for which they are now torn.
The actress’s defense explains that Angelina Jolie sold her shares of Château Miraval to a Russian oligarch, a property in the Var region where the couple had partnered since 2011 with a family of French winegrowers to produce a rosé wine, only following failed negotiations with her ex-husband.
Reason: Brad Pitt demanded an agreement “which would have contractually prevented him from speaking (…) of the physical and emotional violence” committed on her and their children.
In June, the actor accused his ex-wife of having had “evil intentions” once morest him when she sold her shares in the estate to Yuri Shefler. His lawyers invoked supposed links between this Russian tycoon and the entourage of President Vladimir Putin, damaging to his image.
The billionaire is however a long-time critic of the regime of Mr. Putin and had confronted justice in 2002 with the Russian State.