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After accusing her of illegally offloading her stake in their wine company earlier this year, Brad Pitt is now claiming that his ex-wife Angelina Jolie intentionally sold her portion to a “stranger” to “inflict harm” on him.
In October 2021, Jolie sold her stake in Chateau Miraval, the French castle and wine brand she previously owned with Pitt, to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group. Jolie and Pitt purchased a controlling stake in Château Miraval in 2008 and got married there in 2014. Despite their divorce, the pair had remained business partners in Miraval, the wine brand that comes from the property’s vineyards and is best known for its rosé. Pitt previously filed a lawsuit against Jolie in February of this year, accusing her of illegally off-loading that share to Russian businessman Yuri Shefler. At the time that suit was filed, Robert Olson, counsel for Jolie, told Newsweek, “Press is reporting that Mr. Pitt has filed another lawsuit against Ms. Jolie. She has not yet been served, and we are instead learning about the complaint from the media who appear to have been given access to the report to create a press story prior to Ms. Jolie even being served.”
In his latest court documents filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, Pitt added that he believes Jolie intentionally “sought to inflict harm on” him by selling her interests in their company, per People. The actor claims that he and Jolie had an agreement that neither would sell their business interests in Miraval without the other party’s consent. Pitt’s lawyers say that Miraval was his “passion” project that grew “into a multimillion-dollar global business and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine” thanks to his hard work. The document then goes on to accuse Jolie of contributing “nothing to Miraval’s success” and undermining that success by selling to Shefler, who is “bent on taking control of Miraval.” The filing reads, “Jolie pursued and then consummated the purported sale in secret, purposely keeping Pitt in the dark, and knowingly violating Pitt’s contractual rights.” Jolie was previously cleared to sell her share of Miraval in September, but Pitt claims that her business, Nouvel, owed his company, Mondo Bongo, the right of first refusal and this sale violates that.
The documents claim that Shefler is attempting a hostile takeover of Miraval with the goal of attaining “confidential and proprietary information for the benefit of his competing enterprise.” They claim Shefler has “cutthroat business tactics and dubious professional associations” that “jeopardizes the reputation of the brand Pitt so carefully built…. Jolie has sought to force Pitt into partnership with a stranger, and worse yet, a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions.” As a result, Pitt is seeking damages “in an amount to be proven at trial” and is also asking that the sale of Jolie’s stake be declared “null and void.” Pitt is requesting a trial by jury, and is suing for breach of implied-in-fact contract, breach of quasi-contract pleaded in the alternative, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, abuse of rights under Article 6-1 of the Luxembourg Civil Code, tortious interference with contractual relations, tortious interference with prospective business relations, and constructive trust.
Originally published in VanityFair.com
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