Angelina Jolie Scoffs At Ex-Husband Brad Pitt’s Claim She Broke Promise in Bitter War Over $164 Million Estate
Aug. 30 2023, Published 11:59 a.m. ET
Angelina Jolie denied she broke any promise to her ex-husband Brad Pitt when she sold her stake in the French winery that they co-owned — and said her sale to an alleged oligarch should not be undone despite the actor’s claim of a “hostile takeover,” RadarOnline.com has learned.
Jolie and Pitt are in the middle of a bitter court war over a $164 million estate named Chateau Miraval. The couple purchased the property during their marriage with the plan to pass it down to their children.
In 2021, Jolie told Pitt she wanted out of the business and was ready to sell her stake in the company. The two agreed to work out a deal.
At one point, a deal was negotiated that paid Jolie $54 million for her stake. The deal was never executed by Pitt.
In his lawsuit, the negotiations ended after Jolie’s accusations of domestic violence against Pitt leaked in the press. The actor has denied the claims for years.
Pitt said Jolie then turned around and sold her stake to a third-party company named Stoli, which is run by a man named Yuri Shefler.
Pitt said Jolie had promised never to sell her stake without his consent — and now wants her sale to be voided. The actor labeled Shefler a Russian Oligarch and said he attempted a “hostile takeover” of Chateau Miraval.
Jolie’s former company Nouvel filed a $250 million countersuit against Pitt and his associates. In the suit, it accused the Hollywood star of blocking Jolie and Nouvel from obtaining information from the business and misusing company assets.
Now, in a newly filed document, Jolie laid out her defenses to Pitt’s accusations. She said her ex alleged they “agreed they would never sell their respective interests in that property without the other’s consent.”
However, Jolie said Pitt has not presented “any written contract memorializing this purported agreement.”
“He did not even allege an oral agreement. Instead, Pitt posited that, through conduct alone, he and Jolie somehow understood that Jolie granted him the specific right to consent to or veto—regardless of whether they remained a couple—any attempt by Jolie to sell her interest in the home to anyone else,” Jolie’s lawyer wrote.
Jolie said Pitt even admitted in his complaint that his business manager discussed whether to enter a contract with Jolie outlining their rights over the property if they separated.
She said Pitt told her that he rejected any such agreement “based on his belief that a written agreement predetermining the precise terms of a future sale of the couple’s family home and family business was not ‘necessary for two reasonable’ people in a long-term relationship.”
Jolie said there was never a written agreement signed stating she was barred with selling her stake without Pitt’s approval.
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“The mere fact that Pitt and Jolie jointly purchased and maintained Chateau Miraval as their family home does not objectively reflect an offer to give Pitt a specific consent right in Jolie’s share of the property,” the filing read.
Jolie said Pitt’s claims that he invested more than her do not have an relation to the facts at hand.
“Pitt bought the home for his family and was “passion[ate]” about the related business, so it is hardly surprising that he invested his own time and money,” her lawyer wrote.
The case is ongoing.
RadarOnline.com recently obtained the shocking email Jolie sent to Pitt in January 2021 that informed him she wanted out of the business.
“I am putting this in writing so as not to get emotional,” she wrote. “I have reached a painful decision, with a heavy heart, that I want to share with you. You know how much I wanted to buy Miraval, as a family business, as a place for us to visit together, and as a place to hold diplomatic and humanitarian meeting ... Even now impossible to write this without crying. I will treasure my memories of what it was a decade ago.”
She added, “But it is also the place that marks the beginning of the end of our family — and a business that is centered around alcohol.”
She explained she wanted out. “Most of all, I was shaken by the recent imagery that was released to sell the alcohol. I find it irresponsible and not something I would want the children to see. It reminded me of painful times,”
“All of this tells me very clearly that the vision you and the others in the business have is not one I can share. I do not feel I can be involved, publicly or privately, in a business based on alcohol, when alcoholic behavior harmed our family so deeply,” she wrote.
Sources close to Pitt tell us he's unbothered by his ex's recent antics in court and is focused on shooting his new Formula 1 movie.