Angelina Jolie's Camp Accuses Brad Pitt of Silencing Her on Alleged Child Abuse Claims
The legal battle between Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continues to make headlines with Jolie's camp now accusing Pitt of attempting to silence her regarding her claims of child abuse. The claims come as the former partners deal with a lawsuit disagreement over the sale of their shared French vineyard, Chateau Miraval.
Brad Pitt recently filed court papers asserting that Jolie refused to sell her half of Chateau Miraval to him due to a sense of vindictiveness following an unfavorable custody ruling. However, an anonymous source close to Jolie has contradicted Pitt's claims, saying that he tried to prevent her from speaking out about his alleged abuse of their children, reports Page Six.
The anonymous source close to Jolie alleges that Pitt's demand for a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) related to the vineyard purchase was an attempt to silence her specifically on the matter of abuse. According to Page Six, the source pointed to court documents from 2022, stating that Pitt demanded that $8.5 million be withheld from the payment for the vineyard to coerce Jolie into silence. “The reality is that [he] refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to being silenced about the abuse… He demanded that $8.5 million dollars be held back [from his payment to her for the winery] to force her to keep quiet.”
The source further added that regardless of the legal tactics employed by the Seven star, “he cannot escape from the fact that he verbally and physically assaulted Ms. Jolie and their children—even choking one of the children and striking another.” The abuse allegations against Pitt surfaced during their highly publicized divorce in 2016. The accusations included claims of choking and striking one of their children, as well as pouring beer on Jolie.
However, a source close to Pitt has countered these claims, stating that the NDA was a standard business practice to safeguard the value of the asset being sold. The Pitt insider clarified that the NDA did not pertain to family matters but rather to ensure that Jolie did not disparage the vineyard and diminish its value.
In the court filings, Pitt states that he and Jolie had agreed not to sell their shares in Chateau Miraval without the other's approval. However, following their divorce in 2019, Jolie decided to sell her stake to Yuri Shefler, the owner of the Stoli Group, a vodka brand.
Pitt claims that he only became aware of Jolie's decision through a press release in 2021 which pointed out that she had sold her stake to another party. Pitt suggests that this change of heart from Jolie was a result of the "adverse custody ruling," in which he was initially granted joint custody of their six children. This ruling was later overturned.
