LOS ANGELES — Angelina Jolie accused former husband Brad Pitt of choking one of their children during a volatile trans-Atlantic flight in 2016, according to a complaint she filed Tuesday.
The filing, seen by NBC News, was a cross-complaint Jolie aimed at Pitt. It stemmed from his lawsuit that accused Jolie of having improperly sold her half of a winery, Château Miraval, they once owned together in the south of France.
Jolie maintained in the complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, that she was never under restrictions about whom she could sell the property to. And in the 17-page complaint, Jolie recounted a September 2016 flight they took from France back home to Los Angeles, on which, she alleged, Pitt subjected the family to verbal and physical abuse.
“After that flight, for her family’s well-being, Jolie decided to file for divorce,” the complaint said.
Jolie has chronicled the plane ride in previous court documents, but she hadn’t mentioned Pitt’s hands’ allegedly being placed on a child’s throat.
“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,” the complaint said.
“At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children. After many tense hours, Pitt finally fell asleep.”
Jolie’s counter-claim didn’t name which children might have been struck.
Jolie also claimed that she had wanted to sell her half of the winery to Pitt but that those talks proved fruitless, as he demanded an unacceptable “nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children,” according to the complaint.
Representatives for Pitt couldn’t be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
In November 2016, the FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services closed an investigation into allegations of physical abuse involving Pitt and his children that stemmed from the incident aboard the private plane. No criminal charges were ever filed against Pitt.
Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles and David K. Li from New York.