Back in February, Brad Pitt sued Angelina Jolie over her sale of Nouvel, her 50% stake in the Chateau Miraval estate and winery. Jolie sold Nouvel in 2021, after doing all of her legal due diligence and clearing everything with the courts. Brad’s lawsuit is nothing but lies and pettiness, and he’s attempting to keep financially abusing her. Stoli and Tenute del Mondo (who now own Nouvel) have her back – they’ve said quite clearly that the sale was above-board and that they only bought Nouvel after Pitt tried to force Jolie to sign a non-disclosure agreement about how he abused her. Well, Angelina has now filed a cross-complaint and it’s peak “f–k around and find out.” She cites the sustained abuse and trauma she and her children sustained on that plane in September 2016. She provides more details about the assault, details which were not included in the heavily redacted FBI report. Some highlights from the NYT:

Brad Pitt choked one of the children: Jolie’s filing goes on to describe an extended physical and verbal outburst in September 2016 as Mr. Pitt, Ms. Jolie and their six children flew from France to California. “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her,” the filing states, adding that at one point “he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children.”

Why & when Jolie sold Nouvel: Ms. Jolie’s cross complaint said she only sold her stake elsewhere after talks broke down over his demand for a nondisclosure agreement. Her filing states that the F.B.I. agent who investigated allegations that Mr. Pitt physically assaulted Ms. Jolie and their children on the plane in 2016 had “concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime for his conduct that day.”

She’s been trying to protect her children: “She has gone to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day,” Ms. Jolie’s 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.”

More details about the plane assault: According to Ms. Jolie’s account of the 2016 flight in the court papers, the dispute began when Mr. Pitt accused Ms. Jolie of being “too deferential” to their children and then began yelling at her in the bathroom. “Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall,” the filing states. “Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom.” When one of the children came to Ms. Jolie’s defense, the court papers said, Mr. Pitt lunged at the child, prompting her to grab him from behind. Amid the altercation, Mr. Pitt “choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” the suit said.

Jolie says they never had any kind of formal or informal understanding about what to do about Miraval if one of them wanted to sell: Her filing said there was no written or verbal understanding like the one Mr. Pitt described, claiming that Mr. Pitt had, in fact, rejected the idea that there needed to be a plan in case the relationship ended.

[From The NY Times]

Just so we’re clear, Angelina and the children all told the FBI that Brad had physically assaulted them, choked one child, punched another child and terrorized all of them in a confined space for hours, and the FBI was like “gee, that doesn’t sound so serious, no charges!” It’s also insane that one big talking point immediately following the plane assault was “Brad didn’t punch a child in the face.” No, apparently he CHOKED a child. Anyway, Angelina’s argument makes perfect sense and Brad’s lawsuit was always giving “nuisance suit” anyway. Brad’s truly going to sue himself into owning zero percent of Miraval and having zero relationships with his children.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instar.