New information pipped to emerge in Château Miraval case

An ongoing legal case between former spouses Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie concerning the Château Miraval estate could take a very different turn if a new request from Jolie is approved.

On 4 April 2024 Angelina Jolie’s legal team filed a motion requesting to release communication that would ‘prove’ that Pitt would not allow her to sell her shares in Château Miraval to him unless she agreed to an “expansive” non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

This would shed new light on Pitt’s argument that Jolie sold her shares to Russian vodka magnate Yuri Shefler, who owns Stoli, without offering Pitt the chance to buy her portion of the shares first.

Court documents filed with Los Angeles County Superior Court on Jolie’s behalf, claim that Pitt had a history of physical abuse towards Jolie, which pre-dated the now infamous incident that took place on a private jet in 2016, which was the catalyst for Jolie filing for divorce.

Jolie’s lawyers claim that Pitt attempted to “silence” her with the NDA, which contributed to Jolie’s decision to sell her Miraval shares to Shefler rather than Pitt, following “months of negotiation” with her former spouse about selling her stake in the business.

She has previously claimed than an eleventh-hour demand by Pitt for “onerous and irrelevant conditions, including provision designed to prohibit her from publicly speaking about the events that had led to the breakdown of their marriage” is what led Jolie to sell to the Stoli boss instead.

Pitt argues that it was, in fact, Jolie who requested “an even broader non-disparagement clause” and that his original NDA request had been “narrower” with the purpose of  “protecting” their wine business.

The Provence wine estate is valued at around US$500 million and has been at the heart of a bitter dispute between the former married couple since October 2021.

Pitt and Jolie bought Miraval together with the former owning 60% and the latter 40%, but when they tied the knot, Pitt gifted 10% to his partner.

Presently, Pitt retains the majority stake.

Last summer, Jolie’s team accused Pitt of “play acting at being a winemaker” in court documents which claimed that Pitt has “followed a script that may play in Hollywood, but not a court of law” in his “increasingly outrageous actions to retain control over Château Miraval”.

In September, Miraval signed an exclusive distribution deal with the Campari Group to sell its wines in the US and France, the two biggest markets for Provence rosé wines.