Brad Pitt sues ex-wife Angelina Jolie
- By Reuters -
- Feb 19, 2022
Brad Pitt sued his former wife Angelina Jolie for selling her stake in a French winery they had bought together — and where they were married — to a Russian businessman.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, he said she broke their agreement not to sell their interests in Chateau Miraval without the other’s consent by selling her stake to a unit of Stoli Group, a spirits maker controlled by oligarch Yuri Shefler.
The Oscar-winning former couple in 2008 had bought a controlling interest in Miraval, which is in the village of Correns in southeastern France, between Marseille and Nice. They were married there in 2014.
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The World War Z star, 58, said he had “poured money and sweat equity” into making Miraval among the world’s most highly regarded makers of rose wine, with annual revenue exceeding $50 million, the complaint said.
He accused the Tom Raider actor, 46, of seeking “unearned windfall profits” from his work, while inflicting “gratuitous harm.”
Her lawyers did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment.
According to the lawsuit, she told her former husband of reaching a “painful decision, with a heavy heart” to sell her stake, and could no longer own an alcohol-based business because of her personal objections.
Their buyout talks between the Hollywood actors only lasted for five months.
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Tenute del Mondo, a unit of privately owned Stoli, announced its purchase of her stake in October.
The lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for breach of contract and other legal claims.
Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016, and their divorce became final in 2019. They have six children.
He won Academy Awards in 2014 for helping produce best-picture Hollywood winner “12 Years a Slave” and in 2020 for best-supporting actor in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” while she won the Academy Award back in 2000 for best-supporting actress in “Girl, Interrupted.”