Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Winery Court Battle Heats Up: He Calls Sale of Her Stake "Vindictive"
Amid their custody battle, Brad Pitt and ex Angelina Jolie are still engaged in a bitter dispute over another matter: A winery.
In new documents filed in Los Angeles June 1 and obtained by E! News, the Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood actor alleges that the Maleficent actress carried out a "vindictive and unlawful sale" of her half of their French estate and vineyard, Château Miraval.
"Jolie went forward with the vindictive putative sale in breach of her and Nouvel's contractual obligations," Pitt said in his amended complaint, referring to his ex's company, "preferring to sell her stake in Miraval to a designated Russian oligarch and block Pitt from continuing to pursue his successful vision and strategy in building the property and business that was intended to be their children's legacy."
In October 2021, Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of spirits company Stoli Group, announced in a press release the "purchase of 50 percent of Chateau Miraval, and the Miraval brand, from Angelina Jolie." It added, "We are thrilled to have a position alongside Brad Pitt as curators of their extraordinary vintages."
And the actor alleges in his latest filing that he learned about "Jolie's putative sale" to Stoli through the press release and that she "collaborated in secret" with Yuri Shefler—a Russian-born billionaire who founded the company—and his associates to "pursue and then consummate the purported sale, ensuring that Pitt would be kept in the dark." Pitt further noted that Shefler had previously sought to buy Miraval and that he had turned him down.
While the Oscar winner also alleged in his documents that the U.S. Treasury Department had designated Shefler as an "oligarch in the Russian Federation," the businessman was exiled from Russia in 2000 due to his opposition to President Vladimir Putin, CNN reported.
The actor further accuses Jolie of changing her mind about selling her stake to him following a temporary ruling in his favor in their custody battle. In late May 2021, about four months before the announcement, a retired judge hired to arbitrate the case had granted Pitt joint custody of the former couple's children.
The Eternals actress—who shares Maddox, now 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 14, with her ex—later took legal action and a California appeals court agreed with her that the judge who made the ruling should be disqualified from the case because he didn't disclose business relationships with Pitt's lawyers sufficiently. Their custody case is ongoing.
"In the wake of the adverse custody ruling, she no longer wanted to sell to Pitt," the actor states in his amended complaint, "notwithstanding her contractual obligations and years of assurances to him."
Jolie has not responded to Pitt's latest filing but had alleged in 2022 court documents that she was not obliged to sell her stake to her ex. E! News has reached out to her attorney for comment and has not heard back.
The former couple's battle over the winery dates back to 2022. In February of that year, Pitt sued Jolie for allegedly selling her interests in Chateau Miraval without his consent. The two had bought the winery as a joint investment back in 2008 and married on the grounds of the vineyard in 2014 in front of their six kids.
Then in September 2022, Jolie's company filed a $250 million countersuit against Pitt, alleging that he devised a campaign to "seize control" of Chateau Miraval "in retaliation for the divorce and custody proceedings." The Girl, Interrupted actress had filed papers to end her marriage to the actor in 2016 and while a judge declared the two legally single in 2019, they have yet to settle their divorce.
In her filing, Jolie stated that in 2021, she sold Nouvel to an international beverage company after the Babylon actor allegedly "ignored" a "final offer to sell her interest in the winery.
"Although Jolie was not obligated to sell to Pitt, she nevertheless offered to sell her interest to him and negotiated with him for months," her filing reads. "Nearing a deal, Pitt's hubris got the better of him: he made an eleventh-hour demand for onerous and irrelevant conditions, including a provision designed to prohibit Jolie from publicly speaking about the events that had led to the breakdown of their marriage."
In a June 1 response to her countersuit, Pitt stated that he denies every allegation and wants a judge to dismiss Jolie's cross-complaint with prejudice.
Pitt is seeking punitive and exemplary damages from Jolie, a declaration that her purported sale of Nouvel is null and void, and demands a jury trial.
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