ANGELINA Jolie says her ex Brad Pitt physically abused her long before his alleged drunken attack on a plane.
The actress made the claim in new court documents eight years on from Hollywood’s one-time golden couple’s acrimonious split.
She has previously accused Pitt of becoming aggressive towards her and their children on a flight following a family holiday in France.
But in papers filed late on Thursday, her lawyers state: “While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him.”
No details of the alleged abuse before 2016 are given in the papers.
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But they do say Jolie declined to press charges after the plane incident because she felt “the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused”.
The couple got together in 2004 after meeting on the set of spy thriller Mr & Mrs Smith and wed in 2014.
But they divorced after Pitt, now 60, was said to have flown into a rage on the Los Angeles-bound private jet.
He was accused of choking one of their six children and striking another in the face while pouring beer and wine over them and his wife, now 48.
The latest papers were filed to Los Angeles County Superior Court in their ongoing battle over the French winery they once owned together.
She sold her share to a Russian oligarch against his wishes.
Legal papers filed by Jolie’s team allege that Pitt demanded she sign a non-disclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking about his physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.