A company owned by Angelina Jolie is suing Brad Pitt for a colossal $250 million in a lawsuit that claims the actor purposely tried to seize control of their shared French winery in retaliation to Angie’s divorce filing. The explosive report, via Page Six, asserts that in the legal paperwork, which was filed in a Los Angeles courthouse on Tuesday, Jolie’s firm Nouvel claimed that the pair originally bought the 1,300-acre Chateau Miraval back in 2008, and they both invested tens of millions of dollars to establish a business out of the costly investment.
But Jolie’s large stake was said to have been controlled by Pitt when Jolie pulled the plug and called it quits with the “Fight Club” star, which she believes was a move to ensure she “would never see a dime” from any of the profits. Furthermore, Jolie putting up a vigorous battle against Pitt regarding custody of their six children since their split in 2016 apparently also contributed to Pitt’s alleged decision to stop Jolie from getting her cut from the winery earnings.
“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 reads. Pitt is alleged to have secretly moved assets from the winery to his own private companies, which consequently devalued Jolie’s interest as she was allegedly kept out of the loop on business matters since the pair broke up.
Pitt is said to have used tens of millions of the profits to fund “vanity projects,” which included a million dollars on a swimming pool and a staircase that was built and rebuilt four times because the Hollywood star wasn’t happy with the previous attempts. The project alone apparently cost him a fortune, but the funds he allegedly used were from the winery’s expenses.
Chateau Miraval was also revamped with new stone walls that were constructed, with particular stone masons that derived from Croatia, which, again, skyrocketed the costs that he had to pay — though it’s stressed that the money never came out of his own personal wealth. “These funds were spent over Jolie’s and Nouvel’s objection,” the lawsuit adds.
Jolie went ahead and sold her stake of the winery, after she had made Pitt an offer to buy her share, though he was said to have made requests in the deal that the actress didn’t agree with, such as prohibiting her from speaking about their marriage breakdown among other unrelated business matters. “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 suit continued.