LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Brad Pitt recently took legal action against ex-wife Angelina Jolie by filing an amended complaint through his attorneys in a Los Angeles court on Thursday, June 1. The complaint asserts that Pitt was deliberately kept uninformed throughout the process of Jolie selling their shared property, Chateau Miraval, to Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler.
However, a source close to Jolie revealed on Friday, June 2, that Pitt's decision to pursue legal action regarding the sale is rooted in his insistence on Jolie signing a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent her from discussing past allegations of domestic abuse. Court documents that were made public last year shed light on previous allegations made by Jolie regarding a 2016 plane ride involving their six children. The incident ultimately led Jolie to file for divorce just days later.
'[Brad Pitt] verbally and physically assaulted Ms Jolie and their children'
"No matter how many times Mr Pitt amends his complaint, 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," a source told People. "Still today and in the seven years since that fateful plane ride, he personally has never publicly denied that it happened," the source claims. "Mr Pitt saying that he is suing his ex-wife to protect his family is hard to understand because he is well aware the children have not felt able to return to the house in France for almost seven years now due to the events that led to Ms Jolie filing for divorce."
'Pitt decided to sue her for not agreeing to keep quiet'
"The reality is that Pitt refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to being silenced about the abuse as he demanded that $8.5 million be held back to force her to keep quiet," claims the source. "Ms Jolie had no interest in speaking about what happened. In fact, she has not done so even once, and instead she devoted her life to helping the children heal and to advocating to fix the very broken domestic violence response system in America. The only reason any of this has come out now is because Mr Pitt decided to sue her for not agreeing to keep quiet."
'It had nothing to do with the divorce or the children'
However, a source close to Pitt refuted these claims, saying, "There was a non-disparagement clause in the contract, but that is totally standard to business transactions like this. Brad requested a mutual NDA and non-disparagement strictly related to Miraval over concerns around sensitive financial information and protecting the brand, which is standard with these types of transactions," the source says. "It had nothing to do with the divorce or the children." Pitt's lawyer, Anne Kiley, said, "Brad has owned everything he’s responsible for from day one, unlike Angelina, and he’s not going to own anything further." "He’s been through every agency and professional she’s thrown at him, two court hearings and we refer to the findings," she added.
