Brad Pitt Sues Angelina Jolie Over French Vineyard

Exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a legal battle brewing over their French estate, Château Miraval.

The couple bought the property and vineyard in 2008 for almost $30 million and married there in 2014, however they split two years later.

Pitt is suing Jolie for selling her share of the property to a Russian businessman, even though Brad says he should have had the right of first refusal. He is asking for a trial by jury.

Brad filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court, stating, “Jolie consummated the purported sale without Pitt’s knowledge, denying Pitt the consent right she owed him and the right of first refusal her business entity owed his.”

In the docs, obtained by “Extra,” it says, “She sold her interest with the knowledge and intention that [Yuri] Shefler and his affiliates would seek to control the business to which Pitt had devoted himself and to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval.”

The papers claim, “The vineyard became Pitt’s passion — and a profitable one, as Miraval, under Pitt’s stewardship, has grown into a multimillion dollar international success story and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine.”

In another section, the docs state, “Jolie seeks to recover unearned windfall profits for herself while inflicting gratuitous harm on Pitt. Jolie long ago stopped contributing to Miraval — while Pitt poured money and sweat equity into the wine business, building it into the ascendant company it is today. Through the purported sale, Jolie seeks to seize profits she has not earned and returns on an investment she did not make.”

Furthermore, the docs say the sale, “deprives Pitt of his right to enjoy his private home and to oversee the business he developed from scratch. And the purported sale tortiously interferes with Pitt’s agreement with Jolie and that of the entities through which the former couple effected their investment in Miraval.”

Talk of Jolie selling her share of the state started in January 2021 when she “informed Pitt in writing that she had reached a ‘painful decision, with a heavy heart.’ Jolie explained that she had purchased Miraval with Pitt ‘as a family business’ and as the place where she believed they ‘would grow old’ together.”

She no longer wanted any ownership of the “alcohol-based business given her personal objections.” A previous option of Pitt purchasing “some but not all of Jolie’s stake in Miraval,

would be off the table.”

Jolie proposed two options: the exes sell the property, or Pitt and/or his business partner buy out her stake. According to the docs, “Neither scenario contemplated a unilateral sale by Jolie to a third party without Pitt’s consent.”

By October 2021, Jolie had allegedly sold her 50 percent stake to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group, which is controlled by Shefler.