Things are heating up as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continue to battle over a French winery.
In the latest round of events, a company founded by Jolie filed a $250 million lawsuit against her ex-husband claiming that he and several others hatched a plan to "seize control" of the French winery that they bought as a couple "in retaliation for the divorce and custody proceedings" and to "ensure… Jolie would never see a dime" of its profits, according to Page Six.
The court papers were filed Tuesday in Los Angeles and claim that in an effort to prevent Jolie from discussing the circumstances surrounding their split, Pitt tried to force her to sign a "hush-clause" by using Jolie's large financial stake in the winery as leverage.
The pair bought the Chateau Miraval in 2008. According to the filing cited by Page Six, each party owned 50%, and "much of Jolie's personal wealth" was tied up in the winery, in which the "Maleficent" star and Pitt invested millions of dollars to improve.
The lawsuit claims that Jolie would oversee their humanitarian projects while "oversight of the couple's investment in Chateau Miraval was left in the hands of Pitt," according to Page Six. However, the suit states that Pitt "developed a publicly acknowledged alcohol abuse problem," the outlet noted.
The filing also makes mention of the 2016 fight they had on a private flight, saying that "after a serious and internationally publicized incident between Pitt, Jolie, and the couple's children, Jolie filed for divorce," according to Page Six.
The lawsuit further states that "in retaliation for the divorce and custody proceedings, Pitt embarked on a multi-faceted, years-long campaign to seize control of Chateau Miraval and appropriate the company's assets for his benefit and that of his own companies and friends," according to Page Six.
"Appointing himself the rightful owner of Chateau Miraval, his twin objectives were to usurp the value of Jolie's company, Nouvel, and to obtain sole ownership of Chateau Miraval," the lawsuit continues, via Page Six, adding that after their divorce, Pitt operated the winery without consulting his ex-wife.
Since the divorce, according to the suit, Pitt and the directors of Chateau Miraval have "squandered tens of millions of Chateau Miraval's money on vanity projects that have little, if any, business justification," with the funds being "spent over Jolie's and Nouvel's objection," Page Six reported.
The lawsuit claims that Jolie, while not obligated to sell her stake to Pitt, offered to sell her interest to him and negotiated with him for months.
"Nearing a deal," the suit claims, "Pitt's hubris got the better of him: he made an eleventh-hour demand for onerous and irrelevant conditions, including a provision designed to prohibit Jolie from publicly speaking about the events that had led to the breakdown of their marriage," according to Page Six. "Pitt knew that much of Jolie's wealth and liquidity were tied up in [her stake in the winery] and used that fact to try to force Jolie to agree to his unreasonable terms," the filing noted.
In October 2021, Jolie sold her stake to liquor giant Stoli after Pitt "ignored" her "final offer to sell her interest in the winery on the same terms Pitt had proposed but without the hush-clause," according to Page Six.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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