Brad Pitt 'choked his own child and hit another in the face during fight with Angelina Jolie'

5 October 2022, 07:28

Brad Pitt "choked" one of his children and hit another in the face during a fight with Angelina Jolie on a private jet, lawyers for the actress have claimed.

They say he frightened the youngsters and poured beer and red wine on them in an alleged incident that led to Jolie filing for divorce.

Jolie has put forward a string of alleged violent incidents that took place on a plane in September 2016 as her legal team said the Hollywood star was "emotionally and physically abusive" to her and their children.

Pitt's representative dismissed the claims.

The allegations have emerged from a complaint lodged by Jolie amid a dispute over the former couple's co-owned vineyard in southern France.

Documents that were filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles said on September 14 2016, Pitt had been flying overnight with Jolie and their children, who were aged between eight and 15 at the time, when Pitt became "physically and emotionally abusive" to them.

"After that flight, for her family's wellbeing, Jolie decided to file for divorce," they said.

The filing added that Pitt's "aggressive behaviour" had begun before he got on the plane and it continued onboard.

"When one of the children verbally defended Jolie, Pitt lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him.

"To get Jolie off his back, Pitt threw himself backwards into the airplane's seats injuring Jolie's back and elbow.

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"The children rushed in and all bravely tried to protect each other. 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."

He carried on being aggressive, swearing at the family and "pouring beer and red wine on the children", then stopped them from disembarking and physically abused one of the children again, the documents went on.

Jolie filed for divorce five days later and the FBI launched a probe.

"After interviewing various witnesses, the FBI agent who conducted the investigation concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime for his conduct that day, and the agent prepared a probable cause statement for referral to the United States Attorney's Office for prosecution," the documents said, adding that Jolie had "gone to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day".

After splitting, Jolie and Pitt became embroiled in a dispute over the sale of their stakes in a home and vineyard that they bought for £20m in 2008 in Correns, France, run by a company called Chateau Miraval.

"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," lawyers stated.

Pitt has accused her of carrying out a "hostile" takeover over the business that he "carefully built" and forced him into a partnership with Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler, "a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions".

He paid 60% of the price of the stake, while Jolie paid the rest, according to documents.

A representative for Pitt said Jolie's claims were "another rehash that only harms the family".