Fans defend Angelina Jolie after accusations she encouraged her kids to avoid ex Brad Pitt
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Fans are sticking up for Angelina Jolie after she was accused of discouraging her children from spending time with their father amidst the latest legal battle between her and ex-husband, Brad Pitt.
Tony Webb, who owns a security company the couple worked with for 20 years, alleged that Jolie fired him in 2020 after he declined to prevent two bodyguards from testifying on Pitt's behalf during an earlier custody hearing.
According to Webb, one of the bodyguards, Ross Foster, told him "about statements he overheard that Ms. Jolie made to the children, encouraging them to avoid spending time with Mr. Pitt during custody visits."
He claimed that a man he understood to be working on Jolie's behalf reminded him the guards, who were independent contractors and not officially employed by Webb's company, had signed NDAs and threatened that Jolie would sue them if they broke those NDAs to testify.
Webb's allegations were officially filed with the court as part of an ongoing legal battle between the former couple over a French winery they once owned together. Pitt filed a lawsuit in 2022 after Jolie sold half of Chateau Miraval, insisting she should have only controlled 40% of the winery (rather than 50%) and asking the court to void the sale.
As of March, five of the seven claims Pitt made in his filings have reportedly been dismissed by a judge. Jolie's attorney, Paul Murphy, claims the "lawsuit has never been about a business dispute; instead, it is about [Pitt's] attempts to cover up serious abuse."
Last month, Jolie's team claimed all of this could have been avoided had Pitt bought his ex-wife's share of the winery. But they say he refused to do so unless she agreed to sign an "expansive" NDA that would ensure court documents from their custody battle — already sealed and unavailable to the public — would never be revealed.
The latest development appears to be an attempt by Pitt's team to prove Jolie is a hypocrite for not wanting to sign the NDA Pitt requested to move forward with the winery sale.
"The extent of Jolie’s reliance on NDAs will help establish that Jolie was experienced with NDAs and understood their legitimate business purposes and undermine Jolie’s claim that Pitt and Perrin’s proposal of a standard NDA with a broad carve-out for legal proceedings was ‘unconscionable’ and ‘against public policy,’” Pitt’s attorneys told the court.
Murphy rebutted by issuing a statement: "Mr. Pitt’s continued attempt to equate common NDAs for security personnel and housekeepers covering confidential information employees learn at work, with him demanding an expanded NDA to ensure the continued coverup of his deplorable actions remains shameful."
Jolie has previously made accusations of ongoing physical abuse against her ex-husband in court filings. She has also alleged that he got violent with his children on a private plane back in 2016, leading to her decision to file for divorce days later.
No criminal charges were filed relating to that incident. However, the allegations, combined with the public perception that at least several of the couple's six children are estranged from their father, have kept no small number of people ready to jump to Jolie's defense when negative press against her hits the internet.
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After the news of Webb's testimony broke, sources told TMZ that Webb is still currently employed by Pitt — and that his statement left out that one of the two guards he mentioned testified in Jolie's favor during the custody hearing.
