Brad Pitt has accused Angelina Jolie of a ‘hostile takeover’ of the family vineyard in the latest twist in the couple’s bitter legal dispute.
Château Miraval is a vineyard in Provence, in the south of France, which was jointly owned by the former couple and has since been at the center of their high-profile showdown.
In the latest development, Pitt has accused his ex-wife of selling her shares to a Russian oligarch despite a verbal agreement not to sell their shares without the other’s consent.
Now Pitt says Jolie and her former investment company, Nouvelle, have staged a ‘hostile takeover of the business’, according to legal documents obtained by The Blast.
‘Jolie and Nouvel were ordered not to sell an interest in a private family home and wine business without (Brad’s) consent,’ the filing reads.
Brad Pitt accuses Angelina Jolie of ‘hostile takeover’ of Chateau Miraval
Brad Pitt has been accused of acting like a ‘petulant child’ who ‘looted’ the French vineyard he co-owned with Angelina Jolie.
Pitt complained that selling Jolie to a ‘Russian oligarch’ would likely tarnish the reputation of his highly regarded rose.
‘Yet they did so secretly through an alleged sale to Tenute del Mondo, an entity controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shetler.’
‘The defendants have since attempted to take over the business adversely,’ it continued.
Jolie hit back, and in her own filing, seen by The Blast, Brad’s actions were frivolous, malicious and part of a troubling pattern.
He added that they are fighting for the judge to confirm, ‘Pitt’s allegation that he and Ms. Jolie had a secret, unwritten, unspoken agreement for the right to consent to the sale of their interest in the property is directly contradicted by the written record.’
The latest chapter in the long-running feud comes shortly after Pitt was accused of acting like a ‘petulant child’ after the couple ‘looted’ the vineyard they bought together in 2008.
Pitt was also accused of spending millions of dollars on vanity projects at the Vineyard, including building a recording studio and renovating a swimming pool, according to a lawsuit filed by Jolie’s former investment firm Nouvel.
According to the lawsuit, seen by the Financial Times, Pitt acted like a ‘victimized child’ and engaged in ‘innocent money laundering’.
Jolie’s lawyers slammed the actor for styling himself a winemaker, instead saying he ‘works with illusions, not dirt and grapes’.
Pitt and Jolie met on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005, playing a troubled married couple who discover they are both assassins hired by a rival corporation to kill each other.
An aerial view shows Chateau Miraval, winery and house in Le Val, southeastern France on May 31, 2008.
Jolie sold her stake in Nouvelle to Russian billionaire Yuri Scheffler, who has been designated an ‘oligarch’ by the US Treasury Department.
Nouvel, Jolie’s former company, said in a legal filing that Peet had engaged in increasingly outrageous activities to retain control of the winery, and alleged that he was ‘exiting.’ [the rosé producer] of its wealth’.
The rosé brand that Pitt and Jolie founded with the help of winemaker Marc Perrin is set to make more than $16 million in 2022, according to the FT.
Since the couple’s divorce in 2016, Pitt has allegedly ‘conceived a hitherto successful plan to seize de facto control of Château Miraval’, Nouvel’s lawyers claim in a California court filing.
In the new filing, lawyers for Jolie’s former company took aim at Pitt’s styling himself as a winemaker – labeling his influence as ‘ridiculous’.
In the years he allegedly ‘built’ the business, he filmed and appeared in dozens of movies, making countless promotional appearances, not to mention jet-setting. [sic] Around the world for movie premieres, and attending Hollywood parties,’ reads the filing obtained by Page Six.
‘While he no doubt visited the vineyards to admire the work of the French workers who actually made the business a success, Pete is no vigneron.’
The couple split after an incident on a private jet in 2016 in which Pitt was accused of being violent, choking one of their children, hitting another and pushing Jolie.
The FBI did not charge Pitt with the incident.