Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will sue a British tabloid due to claims that they will split

Keith Schillings, of London-based Schillings lawyers, said in a statement that the couple had begun legal proceedings against the News of The World, a Sunday tabloid and Britain’s highest selling newspaper.

The lawyer said that the newspaper had made “false and intrusive allegations” when it reported Jan. 24 that “Pitt and Jolie had agreed to separate, to divide assets worth 205 million pounds ($320 million) and had made arrangements regarding the custody of their six children”.

On Monday, the couple’s layers lodged a claim at London’s High Court to begin a legal case against the newspaper, Schillings said.

“The News of the World has failed to meet our clients’ reasonable demands for a retraction of and apology for these false and intrusive allegations which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets. We have advised them to bring proceedings which they have now done,” Schillings said.

Hayley Barlow, spokeswoman for the News of The World, declined to comment on the couple’s decision to sue the newspaper.

British laws governing libel have traditionally been seen as friendlier to claimants than those in the United States. British law places the burden of proof on the publisher, unlike libel laws in the United States, which require proof that an article was both false and published maliciously.

Image source: pittwatch.com