Brad Pitt is suing ex-wife Angelina Jolie, claiming that she intentionally sought to “inflict harm” on the reputation of their previously co-owned wine business, Miraval, by selling her shares of the company to a “stranger,” People reports. According to the outlet, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor recently filed documents in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The former couple has been at odds regarding the wine estate since their divorce nearly five years ago.
The exes, who spent 12 years together, bought a vineyard and château in the south of France in 2008. The Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-stars got married at the property alongside the six children that they share together.
According to People, lawyers representing Pitt claim that when Jolie sold her shares to a Luxembourg-based spirits manufacturer owned by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, she meant to harm the reputation of “the brand Pitt so carefully built.” Pitt’s documents include a claim that the couple agreed to not sell shares of their co-owned estate without notifying the other party beforehand, and cite a breach of contract between Pitt’s company, Mondo Bongo, and Jolie’s business, Nouvel. However, the BBC reports that Jolie did inform Pitt of her “painful” decision to sell in January 2021.
Pitt also alleges in the lawsuit that Jolie contributed “nothing to [Château] Miraval’s success,” and instead it was Pitt who turned the wine company “into a multimillion-dollar global business and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine.”
Pitt, who claims Shefler’s involvement in the former couple’s wine business will diminish the work he put in, is asking for damages to be declared at trial by jury and for the sale to be null and void.
