Brad Pitt has been accused of “looting” the profits of his French vineyard and behaving like a “petulant child” in his ongoing bitter war of words with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
The former couple bought Château Miraval, a rosé wine-producing vineyard in Provence in the south of France, during their marriage, but it has been the centrepiece of a legal war that has raged since their split in 2016.
In the latest court filing, lawyers for Jolie’s holding company for the vineyard business, Nouvel, have accused Pitt of spending millions of dollars of profits from the business on “vanity projects” including a recording studio and renovating the swimming pool. It is a “blatant money grab” from someone acting like a “petulant child”, lawyers have said, as well as questioning Pitt’s commitment to the business.
Pitt, 59, and Jolie, 48, are believed to have spent $28 million on the vineyard in 2008 and each took 50 per cent stakes. In 2021, Jolie sold her stake in Nouvel to a Russian oligarch — to the ire of Pitt who says he learned about it through a press release.
In the legal filing, Nouvel’s lawyers say Pitt “engaged in increasingly outrageous actions to retain control” of the vineyard, and accused him of asset stripping.
“Pitt wasted the company’s assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations... and spending millions to restore a recording studio,” it said.
Since the divorce, he has “masterminded a so-far-successful plan to seize de facto control of Château Miraval”, it is alleged.
Jolie also took aim at Pitt’s “ludicrous” presentation of himself as a winemaker, suggesting he “deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes”.
“During the years that he allegedly ‘built’ the business, he filmed and appeared in dozens of movies, not to mention making countless promotional appearances, jetting-setting around the world for movie premieres, and attending Hollywood parties,” lawyers said. “While he no doubt visited the vineyards to admire the work of the French laborers who actually made the business successful, Pitt is no vigneron.”
It is said Pitt believed he had first refusal on buying Jolie out of the vineyard, and was “incensed” by her decision to sell to a company controlled by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler. She says she was seeking “financial independence” from Pitt.
Pitt initially sued Jolie over the vineyard in February 2022, with Nouvel filing a $250 million lawsuit later in the same year. Jolie, Nouvel, Shefler, and a collection of the Russian’s business interests are all parties to the case, against Pitt and his company, Mondo Bongo.
Pitt’s case, which has not yet gone to trial, is that Jolie “unlawfully, severely and intentionally damaged (him) and unjustly enriched herself” with the sale of her share of the vineyard.
The couple were formally declared “legally single” in 2019, though their divorce is reportedly not yet finalised.
