Brad Pitt slams Angelina Jolie’s request to share messages in lawsuit
Brad Pitt’s lawyers have filed a legal request for an “intrusive” motion filed by his ex-wife Angelina Jolie to be denied in their ongoing lawsuit.
unbranded – Entertainment
Brad Pitt is asking Angelina Jolie to turn over several years of financial records in their ongoing legal battle.
The actor, 62, accused his ex, 51, of withholding information about her income after their 2016 split in a July 31 filing obtained by USA TODAY. While Pitt’s attorneys said Jolie produced financial documentation for 2020 and 2021, she allegedly refused to do so for 2017 through 2019.
This comes amid the former couple’s longstanding dispute over Château Miraval, the French winery they jointly owned from 2008 until 2021 and where they got married in 2014 following a nearly decade-long relationship. Pitt filed the lawsuit in February 2022 after Jolie sold her stake to an investment firm without his consent.
In the latest filing, the “Fight Club” alum referred to Jolie’s prior claims that she needed to sell her interest in the estate in order to obtain “financial independence” from him.
It further alleged she said she “largely put her career on hold, forgoing years of compensation in the process,” in the aftermath of their separation in 2016 and later attributed Pitt’s “substantial leverage and control” over her “to her financial condition at that time.”
The “Maleficent” star’s legal team responded to Pitt’s initial request in June, saying “the entire basis for Pitt compelling these answers is a made-up theory that Jolie did not allege.”
“Pitt claims that Jolie has put her entire financial condition at issue going back to 2017 because of her allegation that she was seeking ‘financial independence.’ But Pitt’s selective quote misleadingly fails to include the entirety of her allegation,” the response said.
“Jolie does not allege that she was seeking financial independence in the abstract; she alleges that she was seeking ‘financial independence from her ex-husband [Pitt].’ Separating from one’s ex-husband is categorically different from an allegation that one is suffering general financial distress,” her attorneys continued.
“Jolie has never alleged that she was in financial distress—her allegations are clear that she sought to untangle her financial life from the ex-spouse she was divorcing. That distinction is dispositive.”
The response further highlighted that Jolie already produced income and tax statements from 2020 and 2021 despite having “no obligation to do so,” and said “going back any further is a serious invasion of Jolie’s privacy rights.”
In his July 31 motion, Pitt’s lawyers argued Jolie’s financial information was only protected “unless you put it at issue,” which they said she has done.
His team also said she declined the court’s proposal during a June discovery conference to limit “the scope of Jolie’s testimony concerning her earnings and compensation” in future proceedings, concluding that she has “opened the door” for her 2017 through 2019 income records to be turned over.
The case is expected to go to trial in August 2027.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Jolie and Pitt for comment.
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, Morgan Hines and Edward Segarra, USA TODAY