Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Getty Images (2)
Angelina Jolie‘s ongoing legal battle with ex Brad Pitt is getting more heated, as she alleged that the actor tried to force her to sign an $8.5 million non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to cover up “years of abuse.”
In new court documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on July 25 and obtained by Us Weekly, Jolie’s attorneys argued their support for Pitt, 60, to disclose “private, third-party communications” he had about their family’s 2016 plane ride that resulted in Jolie, 49, filing for divorce. Pitt’s legal team previously responded to the motion, calling the separate filing asking for his personal communications “wide-ranging and intrusive.”
In the July 25 docs, Jolie’s legal team said the actress “was not acting with malice and the intent to hurt Pitt in response to any custody ruling” when she sold her share of Château Miraval – the former couple’s winery – in 2021. (Pitt sued Jolie over the transaction in 2022, claiming that she illegally sold her shares of the French company. The exes have also been embroiled in a years-long custody battle over their kids: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16.)
“Instead, 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,” read the docs.
Related: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Battle of the Winery: Everything to Know
Battle of the exes. Brad Pitt filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Angelina Jolie in February 2022, claiming that she illegally sold her shares of Miraval, a French company including a chateau and vineyard that the former couple purchased together in the south of France. The Mr. and Mrs. Smith stars first gained a controlling […]
Jolie noted in her motion that “abuse survivors are often discredited and rarely believed on their word alone.” She claimed Pitt wanted to “bury” his “own hurtful emails demonstrating his past abuse of Jolie and their children” when the Offer of Proof was considered for their past testimony. “In response, he demanded Jolie sign the expanded NDA to prevent her from ever speaking of it,” said Jolie’s motion.
The Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood actor maintained that he did not use the NDA in an attempt to cover up any alleged abuse, per the court documents.
Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Angelina Jolie
In a May filing obtained by Us, a judge ruled that Jolie must produce all NDAs she agreed to with third parties over an eight-year period from 2014 to 2022.
“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 Us. “Jolie claims she backed out of selling her stake to Pitt after he asked her to sign an ‘unconscionable’ privacy agreement as part of the business deal – a defense Pitt insists is undermined by her own routine use of NDAs.”
He added that “Jolie’s defense is a cover story she cooked up to ‘rationalize’ the decision to sell her stake” in Miraval.
Related: Hollywood’s Ugliest Divorces: From Johnny and Amber to Brad and Angelina
Throughout their time in the spotlight, some A-listers — including Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Madonna and Tom Cruise, among others — have found themselves involved in pretty messy divorces. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard finalized their divorce in 2017, but their relationship drama continued on with a nasty court battle after they’ve both accused each other of verbal and […]
The Mr. and Mrs. Smith stars first gained a controlling interest in Miraval in 2008. They began selling their own rosé in March 2013 and got married at the chateau in August 2014. Pitt alleged that when Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, they both agreed not to sell their Miraval shares without each other’s permission.
However, in 2021, Jolie sold her portion of the business to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli group, owned by Russian businessman Yuri Shefler. In his filing, Pitt argued that his ex-wife made the business decision without his knowledge or consent.
In July, Jolie’s team filed a motion asking Pitt to drop his lawsuit over the French winery so they could “end the fighting and finally put their family on a clear path toward healing.”
