Angelina Jolie has urged her ex-husband Brad Pitt to drop his legal case against her so that her family can start to “heal”.
The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider star was in a 12-year relationship with the Fight Club actor, but they have been tangled in legal action for several years relating to their shared wine business, and now Jolie has made the plea for the current lawsuit to be dropped.
The former couple’s dispute over their French winery Château Miraval stems back to 2022, when Pitt sued Jolie for allegedly attempting to sell her share of the business without his prior consent.
Jolie claims that Pitt blocked her sale of the property and would only agree if he agreed to a “more onerous” and “expansive” non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Jolie has previously suggested that Pitt wanted her to sign an NDA to stop her speaking out about his alleged abusive behaviour towards her and her children.
Now, Jolie’s representative Paul Murphy has said: “While Angelina again asks Mr. Pitt to end the fighting and finally put their family on a clear path toward healing, unless Mr. Pitt withdraws his lawsuit, Angelina has no choice but to obtain the evidence necessary to prove his allegations wrong.”
Earlier this year, Jolie’s lawyers labelled Pitt’s attempts to obtain her past NDAs with third parties as “abusive”. In May, a judge ruled that Jolie would have to submit eight years of NDAs.
“Mr. Pitt has control of all the properties the couple shared as well as control of the business, but still he demands more, and is suing Angelina for $67 million plus punitive damages,” Murphy added. “In doing so, Pitt placed squarely at issue why he tried to punish and control Angelina by demanding a newly expanded NDA.”
Pitt has not responded to approaches to comment on the statement.
Pitt and Jolie’s divorce proceedings are also ongoing – with Jolie filing for divorce in 2016 following an alleged physical altercation on a private plane, with one of their children, Maddix, allegedly involved in the incident.
Pitt was subject to a “child abuse investigation” in relation to the alleged incident, with the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services later clearing the actor of wrongdoing.
Details of the alleged altercation came to light further in 2022 after Jolie was revealed to be the plaintiff in an anonymous complaint against the FBI, which had closed an investigation into Pitt’s alleged domestic assault. Pitt has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
In April, Jolie’s lawyers claimed that Pitt was physically abusive prior to the plane incident, with a representative for Pitt declining to comment on the new abuse allegations.
Last month, Jolie and Pitt’s daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt petitioned to drop Pitt from her surname.
The third-eldest child of the former couple filed the request on the occasion of her 18th birthday, saying she wants to be known as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie.
That came after two of Pitt and Jolie’s other children appeared to distance themselves from Pitt’s name, with eldest daughter Zahara introducing herself as “Zahara Marley Jolie” in an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority video, and daughter Vivienne dropping the Pitt name from a credit in Playbill for Broadway’s The Outsiders.