After accusing her of illegally taking over her interest in their wine company earlier this year, Brad Pitt now claims that his ex-wife Angelina Jolie deliberately sold her share to a “stranger” in order to “harm him”.
In October 2021, Jolie sold her stake in Château Miraval, the French chateau and wine brand she previously owned with Pitt, to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group. Jolie and Pitt bought a majority stake in Château Miraval in 2008 and were married there in 2014. Despite their divorce, the couple had remained business partners in Miraval, the wine brand that comes from the property’s vineyards and is best known for its rosé. Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie earlier in February this year, accusing her of illegally transferring that share to a Russian businessman. Yuri Shefler. At the time the charges were filed, Robert Olson, counsel for Jolie, told… news week, “The press is reporting that Mr. Pitt has filed another lawsuit against Ms. Jolie. She has not yet been served, and instead we are hearing about the complaint from the media who appear to have been given access to the report to create a press story before Ms. Jolie was even served.”
In his most recent court documents filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Pitt added that he believes Jolie willfully “wanted to harm him” by selling her interests in their company, per People† The actor claims that he and Jolie had an agreement that neither of them would sell their business interests in Miraval without the other party’s consent. Pitt’s lawyers say Miraval was his “passionate project” that, thanks to his hard work, “grew into a multimillion-dollar global company and one of the world’s most valued rosé wine producers.” The document then accuses Jolie of contributing “nothing to Miraval’s success” and undermining that success by selling it to Shefler, who is “determined to take control of Miraval”. The filing reads: “Jolie secretly pursued and subsequently completed the alleged sale, purposely keeping Pitt in the dark and knowingly violating Pitt’s contractual rights.” Jolie was previously authorized to sell her share of Miraval in September, but Pitt alleges that her company, Nouvel, owed his company, Mondo Bongo, the right of first refusal and this sale violates that.
The documents allege that Shefler is attempting a hostile takeover of Miraval for the purpose of “obtaining confidential and proprietary information on behalf of its rival company.” They claim that Shefler has “ruthless business tactics and questionable trade associations” that “endanger the reputation of the so carefully constructed Pitt brand…. Jolie has tried to force Pitt into partnering with a stranger, and worse, a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions.” As a result, Pitt is seeking damages “in an amount to be proven at trial” and also asks that the sale of Jolie’s interest be “null and void”. Pitt is seeking a jury trial and is suing for breach of a actual contract, breach of a quasi-contract argued in the alternative, breach of an implied agreement of good faith and fair dealing, abuse of rights under Article 6-1 of the Luxembourg Civil Code, wrongful interference in contractual relations, wrongful interference in future business relationships and constructive trust.
Vanity Fair has reached out to representatives for Jolie and Shefler for comment.
