The Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-stars this time are battling it out in real life.
Brad Pitt has accused his ex-wife Angelina Jolie of intentionally damaging the reputation of their winery Château Miraval by selling her stake to a “stranger.”
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The former Hollywood couple bought the château as a home to share with their children and the vineyard as a family business. They would spend the holidays at the property and even got married there in 2014.
According to Pitt’s latest court filing dated June 3, he and Jolie agreed they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without the other’s consent.
The filing added that Pitt singlehandedly grew Miraval “into a multimillion-dollar global business and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine.”
“Jolie, meanwhile, contributed nothing to Miraval’s success. Instead, she allowed Pitt to pour money and sweat equity into the business in reliance on the consent right she owed him and a right of first refusal her business entity owed his,” Pitt’s camp claims.
Trial by jury
Jolie in October 2021 sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo, which Pitt’s team described as a “hostile third-party competitor bent on taking control of Miraval” and was “indirectly owned and controlled by Yuri Shefler, the Russian billionaire who controls the Stoli Group.”
“In violation of the parties’ agreement, Jolie has sought to force Pitt into partnership with a stranger. And worse yet, a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions,” the filing reads.
Consequently, according to Pitt, Shefler has taken over the wine business, destabilized its operations, and sought access to its confidential and proprietary information for the benefit of his competing enterprise.
“Through the purported sale, Jolie sought to inflict harm on Pitt. Jolie knew and intended that Shefler and his affiliates would try to control the business Pitt had built. And to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval,” the filing concluded.
Pitt has asked for a trial by jury. He seeks damages “in an amount to be proven at trial” and wants Jolie’s sale declared “null and void.”
Banner Photo by Georges Biard via Wikimedia Commons
