Experts question timing of Angelina Jolie’s new claims that Brad Pitt ‘choked’ one of their children
Angelina Jolie’s explosive new allegations that Brad Pitt “choked” one of their six children and “struck another in the face” during a September 2016 private plane ride sound pretty damaging to the actor’s glossy Hollywood reputation, as well as to his hope of ever playing a role in his children’s lives.
But legal experts question the timing and nature of Jolie’s “high-conflict” child-abuse claims as their divorce battle rages on into its sixth year. They note that Jolie’s descriptive domestic violence allegations did not arise as she and Pitt spent the past six years fighting over child custody. Instead, these claims have emerged as millions of dollars are at stake over the sale of the French winery that the ex-couple purchased in 2008.
“I’m not sure these allegations would have surfaced if not for the huge amount of money at stake in her civil dispute with Pitt over the winery,” Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Joshua Ritter, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, said in an email to this news organization. “When millions of dollars are at stake, people tend to become more cut-throat and to bring these kinds of allegations against their exes.”
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers, said celebrities say all sorts of things when they fight with their exes.
Texas-based family law attorney Holly Davis said that Pitt has admitted to “most of the behavior” on that Sept. 14, 2016 private plane ride, which prompted Jolie to file for divorce in the first place. Pitt, however, has denied he ever was physically abusive to his children.
“He was punished for it in their custody case,” Davis said in an email. “Since 2016, he has been rehabilitating himself and showing that he is not a danger to the children, which justified a request for an increased amount of time with the children.”
In a cross-complaint Jolie filed Tuesday, related to her attempt to sell her share of their Château Miraval winery, the UN special envoy offered up new details about that long and “tense” plane ride from France to Los Angeles, in which she says an intoxicated Pitt was verbally and physically abusive to her and their children. Pitt and Jolie, who were declared legally single by a judge back in 2019, are parents to Maddox, 21, Pax, 18, Zahara, 17, Shiloh, 16, and 14-year-old twins, Vivienne and Knox.
“When one of the children verbally defended Jolie, Pitt lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him,” Jolie’s complaint reads, according to the New York Times. “To get Jolie off his back, Pitt threw himself backwards into the airplane’s seats injuring Jolie’s back and elbow. 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.”
The complaint says that over the course of “many tense hours” on the flight, Pitt “periodically emerged from the back of the plane to yell and swear at them,” People also reported. “At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children,” the document also said.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services in the immediate aftermath of the plane ride concluded with no findings of abuse, People reported. The FBI also investigated but decided to not file criminal charges against Pitt. It’s not clear whether a heavily redacted F.B.I. report, obtained by the New York Times and other news outlets in August, included allegations that Pitt had choked or struck any of the children, the New York Times said.
Jolie argues that a she “has gone to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day,” the complaint said. Jolie also says she has no choice but to “publicly defend herself for the first time,” according to the complaint. She alleges that Pitt’s lawsuit over the winery sale is an attempt to “reassert control” over her financial life and to compel her to rejoin her ex-husband “as a frozen-out business partner.”
In his lawsuit, filed in June, Pitt accused Jolie of damaging the reputation of Château Miraval, known for its rosé, by selling her half to a subsidiary of Stoli Group without his approval, People reported. Pitt, who has described the winery as a “passion project,” said they had agreed to never sell their respective interests in the family business without the other’s consent.
Jolie argues in her complaint that “no such agreement ever existed,” People reported. A sticking point for Jolie in the winery conflict appears to be Pitt’s alleged demand that she sign a non-disclosure agreement barring her from “speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”
For his part, a source close to Pitt told People, TMZ and other outlets that Jolie “continues to rehash, revise and reimagine her description of an event that happened six years ago, adding in completely untrue information to try to get additional attention for herself at the expense of their family.”
Jolie “had the opportunity to share information with law enforcement who made the decision not to press charges,” the source continued. “She had the chance to share this during the lengthy custody trial, which resulted in the judge granting 50-50 custody to Pitt. She has resorted to trying to keep rehashing the same thing. Going back to the same thing month after month with new and still false information for purposes that only she can understand.”
Jolie’s repeated attempts to paint Pitt as a child abuser have taken an extreme toll on their six children, who are now all but estranged from their father, a source told TMZ. Brad now has a “limited and strained relationship” with his children “because of her campaign of alienation.” the TMZ source said.
Actually, the issue of custody remains unresolved. Jolie won a legal challenge in 2021 to have a private judge disqualified from the case. The judge, John Ouderkirk, initially oversaw the ex-couple’s custody dispute and granted Pitt 50-50 custody. The judge, incidentally, presided over the couple’s private family wedding ceremony in 2014 at Château Miraval.
As the years have worn on, the issue of custody has become increasingly moot. Two of the couple’s six children are no longer minors, a third is 17 and has started college, and the remaining three are teenagers who are old enough to decide which parent they want to live with or spend time with.