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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s clash over French winery Ch?teau Miraval has turned downright nasty, with the actress accusing her ex-husband of seizing the business and squandering its profits in retaliation for her breaking up their marriage.
“Ever since his former wife, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce from him in 2016, Brad Pitt has been waging a vindictive war against her,” according to the countersuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Jolie’s former company, Nouvel.
“Pitt has frozen Nouvel out of Ch?teau Miraval and treats it as his personal fiefdom,” the filing says.
The suit alleges that the “Troy” star wasted tens of millions of dollars of the winery’s revenue on vanity projects and secretly moved assets to companies owned by him and his friends.
BRAD PITT CALLS ANGELINA JOLIE’S SALE OF STAKE IN FRENCH WINERY ‘VINDICTIVE’: LAWSUIT
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the premiere of “By the Sea” in Hollywood in 2015.
(Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic via Getty)
The exes are two of the richest actors in the world, with Pitt worth a reported $300 million and Jolie $120 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The former Hollywood power couple bought Ch?teau Miraval together in 2008 for 25 million euros.
Six years later, they tied the knot on the sprawling 1,800-acre property with sweeping views of the vineyards and a private lake.
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Pitt, 58, and Jolie, 47, split in 2016 but have been locked in near constant litigation over custody of their six children – and now over ownership of the 17th-century French estate and vineyard in Correns that once served as a family retreat.
A photo illustration of the award-winning Miraval ros? with the Ch?teau Miraval winery in the background.
(Philippe Laurenson/Reuters)
The counterclaim comes in response to a lawsuit Pitt filed earlier this year accusing the “Maleficent” star of secretly selling her 50% stake in the winery to an alleged Russian oligarch and spirits tycoon.
Pitt called the sale “vindictive and unlawful,” saying it was retaliation for an unfavorable custody ruling Jolie received last year, and asked the judge to cancel the deal and award him damages.
The winery became a profitable venture under Pitt’s stewardship, producing a ros? that Wine Spectator listed as among the top 100 wines in the world.
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But in Jolie’s counterclaim, she accuses Pitt of masterminding “a so-far-successful plan to seize control of Ch?teau Miraval,” which is equally co-owned by the actor’s investment company Mondo Bongo and Nouvel.
Maddox Jolie-Pitt, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Knox Jolie-Pitt attend Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” premiere on Oct. 18, 2021, in Los Angeles, California.
(Rich Fury/Getty)
It is Jolie’s largest investment, yet she had no control over the winery’s operations, the suit says.
“Pitt wasted its assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations,” according to the court papers.
A staircase at the chateau was rebuilt four times at Pitt’s direction because he was unhappy with the first three attempts, the filing says.
The extravagant expenditures that have no “business justification” and were made over Jolie’s objections have left the profitable winery barely breaking even.
An aerial view taken on May 31, 2008, of Ch?teau Miraval in southeastern France, the winery Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bought in 2008.
(Michel Gangne/Getty)
She was willing to sell her shares to her ex-husband, and they had neared a deal but “Pitt’s hubris got the better of him.”
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He allegedly made a last-minute demand for “onerous and irrelevant conditions,” including a hush clause that would bar her from speaking about the breakdown of their marriage.
In October 2021, after Pitt ignored her final offer, she sold Nouvel to the Stoli Group.
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But Pitt has refused to cooperate with the company or its owner, Yuri Shefler, calling the winery’s association with the Russian billionaire “a massive international liability.”
