Brad Pitt is suing Angelina Jolie over drama pertaining to their co-owned winery, Chateau Miraval, amid their on-going divorce. The Lara Croft actress, 46, has sold her 50% share of the company — which makes the very popular Miraval rosé wine — to Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler per court documents, TMZ reports. HollywoodLife has independently confirmed the lawsuit through a source close to Brad and reached out for comment to both stars’ representatives regarding the report.
News of Angelina selling her half of the winery broke in Oct. 2021. She allegedly did not seek permission from ex Brad, 58, for the sale of her portion to the company Tenute del Mondo last year. Tenute del Mondo is a subsidiary of of globally known vodka company SPI Group, which is controlled by Yuri Shefler.
Per documents, Brad alleges that Angelina kept the sale secret and he wants to undo the deal, claiming that Shefler is making it difficult for him to operate the French based winery. The Moneyball actor is also seeking damages for the move. Brad alleges in the filing that the two had an agreement that neither could sell their portion without permission from the other party.
Brad and Angelina bought Chateau Miraval, located in Correns France, in 2008, and were later married there in 2014. The venture was a joint project: Angelina helped invest to buy the $28.4 million property by financing 40% of the sale. Brad, however, applied his passion for design and wine to helping develop the highly successful brand (which includes rosé wine, white wines, and olive oil) alongside the Perrin family of Château de Beaucaste. In the documents, Brad says he was the backbone of the winery’s success, whereas Angelina was simply an owner. “[Angelina] is seeking a return on an investment she did not make and profits she did not earn,” a source close to Brad alleges to HollywoodLife.
Since the initial rosé was released in 2013, it’s been a massive success: sales went up 17.4% and the company sold close to 150,000 cases in the U.S. in 2021, per stats from Wine Spectator‘s sister publication Impact Databank. The publications also note that the estimated worth of Chateau Miraval is around $162 million now.
Angelina filed for divorce from Brad in Sept. 2016 after over a decade together, and two years of marriage. The couple had since waged an ongoing custody battle over their five minor children Zahara, 16, Pax, 17, Shiloh, 15, Vivienne, 13, and Knox, 13.(Maddox, 20, is legally an adult and studying at Yonsei University in South Korea).
“[Filing for divorce] was the right decision,” Angelina said to Vogue India in 2020. “I continue to focus on their healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”