Angelina Jolie has accused her ex-husband Brad Pitt of attempting to silence her allegations of abuse through a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Jolie's attorneys allege that Pitt sought to impose an $8.5 million NDA to cover up "years of abuse." These claims have surfaced as part of an ongoing dispute over their French winery, Château Miraval, and other legal battles involving their family.
According to court documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on July 25, Jolie's legal team supports a motion compelling Pitt to disclose "private, third-party communications" regarding their family's 2016 plane ride, an incident that led Jolie to file for divorce. Pitt's legal team has countered, calling the request for personal communications "wide-ranging and intrusive."
The court documents reveal that Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 60, have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over their joint business ventures and custody of their children since their separation. Jolie's attorneys argue that she was not acting out of malice when she sold her share of Château Miraval in 2021, a transaction that Pitt has legally contested.
"It was Pitt who refused to buy her interest unless he received his newly expanded NDA, enforceable by an $8.5 million holdback specifically designed to force her silence about his abuse and cover-up," Jolie's legal team stated. They further assert that "abuse survivors are often discredited and rarely believed on their word alone," underscoring the gravity of the allegations.
Pitt's legal team maintains that the NDA was not intended to conceal any abuse. In a May court filing, a judge ordered Jolie to produce all NDAs she agreed to with third parties from 2014 to 2022. Pitt's team argues that Jolie's defense is a fabricated excuse to justify selling her stake in Miraval to the Stoli Group's wine division, Tenute del Mondo, without Pitt's consent.
"The issue of NDAs has become a key battleground in the dispute over the award-winning Château Miraval business," a member of Pitt's legal team stated. They contend that Jolie's claim of backing out of selling her stake due to an "unconscionable" NDA is undermined by her own routine use of such agreements.
The couple's legal battles began after their split in September 2016, following a family plane trip from France to Los Angeles that reportedly turned violent. Jolie claims the abuse started well before this incident but reached a critical point during the flight when Pitt allegedly became physically abusive towards her and their children.
"While Pitt advances what is effectively an outdated privacy-of-domestic-violence argument to shield his abuse, his argument is not the law, at least not in this century," Jolie's legal team asserted in their filing. They added that Pitt waived any privacy protections by suing Jolie.
Pitt's lawyers have requested the court deny Jolie's motion, arguing that the communications requested pertain to sensitive issues, including therapy Pitt voluntarily underwent following the 2016 incident. They accuse Jolie of attempting to re-litigate their divorce through the business dispute over Château Miraval.
The acrimony between the former couple extends to their custody battle over their six children: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. Recently, Shiloh took legal action to remove Pitt from her last name, citing "painful events" in her life.
