Angelina Jolie accused former husband Brad Pitt of choking one of their children during a volatile trans-Atlantic flight in 2016according to a complaint she filed on Tuesday.
The filing, seen by NBC News, was a cross-complaint Jolie aimed at Pitt. It stemmed from his lawsuit that accused the “Tomb Raider” actor of improperly selling her half of a winery, Château Miraval, they once owned together in the south of France.
Jolie maintained in this complaint that she was never under restrictions regarding who she might sell the property to. And within the 17-page complaint, Jolie recounted a September 2016 flight they took from France back home to Los Angeles, in which Pitt allegedly subjected the family to verbal and physical abuse.
“After that flight, for her family’s well-being, Jolie decided to file for divorce,”the complaint said.
Jolie has chronicled this plane ride in previous court documents, but hadn’t mentioned Pitt’s hands allegedly being placed on a child’s throat.
“Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face. Some of the children pleaded with Pitt to stop. They were all frightened. Many were crying,” the complaint said.
“At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children. After many tense hours, Pitt finally fell asleep.”
Jolie’s counter-claim did not name which children might have been struck.
Jolie also claimed she had wanted to sell her half of the winery to Pitt but those talks proved fruitless as her former husband demanded an unacceptable “nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court regarding Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children,” according to the complaint.
Representatives for Pitt might not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
In November 2016, the FBI and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) closed an investigation into allegations of physical abuse involving Pitt and his children that stemmed from the incident aboard the private plane. No criminal charges were ever filed once morest Pitt.
