Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie first visited Château Miraval in 2008.
The 1,200-acre property, nestled within the village of Correns in Provence, dates again to the 1600s and contains olive groves, pine forests, personal lakes, and a 35-room stone château surrounded by terraced vineyards.
Initially, they LEASED the property, with an possibility to purchase. Court docket paperwork would later reveal that after they leased the property in 2008, Brad owned 60% by means of his firm, Mondo Bongo, and Angelina owned 40% by means of her firm, Nouvel. They ultimately exercised their possibility to purchase, paying $28.4 million to grow to be the total homeowners. Jolie contributed 40% of the acquisition worth whereas Pitt contributed 60%, in accordance with their possession stakes.
In 2013, Pitt offered 10% of his stake to Jolie for one Euro, making them equal homeowners. They obtained married on the property a yr later.
Chateau Miraval (MICHEL GANGNE/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Miraval Rosé
The winery, Miraval Côtes de Provence Rosé, was already in operation after they acquired it, however Pitt and Jolie elevated it into a world luxurious model. Partnering with the Perrin household—famend vintners behind Château de Beaucastel—they launched Miraval Rosé in 2013 to widespread acclaim. You have most likely seen it at your native grocery retailer. It is glorious!
Critics praised its pale pink colour and refined style, and bottles bearing the “Jolie-Pitt & Perrin” label grew to become on the spot standing symbols. Inside months, it was one of many best-selling rosés on this planet. For a time, Miraval embodied the top of “Brangelina” glamour—romance, artistry, and enterprise success seamlessly intertwined.
The Breakup
Then got here the unraveling. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 following a personal jet incident that ended their 12-year relationship and two-year marriage. The breakup triggered a cascade of authorized battles—custody fights, monetary disputes, and property divisions—that stretched on for years. What had as soon as been their shared retreat in Provence grew to become one of the crucial contentious belongings of their divorce.
In 2021, Jolie offered her 50% stake in Miraval to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group. Pitt argues that transfer violated an understanding that neither companion would promote their shares with out the opposite’s approval. Jolie has denied that such a binding settlement ever existed. What started as a love story had by then developed right into a transcontinental company warfare.
Anthony Harvey/Getty Photographs
$35 Million Lawsuit
Till just lately, most observers assumed the vineyard dispute had pale quietly into the background of their divorce. Properly, apparently not.
On October 29, Pitt’s attorneys filed a 286-page compendium of proof in Los Angeles Superior Court docket as a part of his ongoing case in opposition to Jolie. The paperwork embrace each redacted and unredacted emails spanning almost twenty years—some relationship again to 2008—overlaying all the things from enterprise discussions to private stress.
Amongst them is a letter dated November 22, 2023, from one in every of Jolie’s attorneys to Pitt’s authorized crew. That letter contained a revealing line:
“We be aware that the burdensome nature of any manufacturing is a matter of [Pitt’s] personal creation — he’s suing for $35 million in damages. In consequence, he has to incur the expense of manufacturing the paperwork that can present (or not present) these damages.”
That correspondence marked the primary time Jolie’s personal crew acknowledged the dimensions of Pitt’s monetary declare. The $35 million determine refers to alleged financial damages and reputational hurt that Pitt’s aspect says resulted from Jolie’s 2021 sale to Stoli. His attorneys argue the deal undermined Miraval’s operations and was a part of a “hostile takeover” that stripped Pitt of management of the model he had constructed.
Jolie’s camp has fired again, insisting the sale was lawful and motivated by her need to maneuver on from their joint enterprise affairs. Her legal professionals declare she withdrew from Pitt’s earlier buyout negotiations solely after he insisted she signal a sweeping non-disclosure settlement that will have prevented her from talking publicly about their marriage or the 2016 airplane incident that ended it.
Pitt’s crew, in the meantime, maintains that Jolie’s sale was carried out “with malice” and that her communications with advisers—lots of which at the moment are on the middle of a discovery battle—present intent to wreck his monetary pursuits.
Jonathan Leibson/Getty Photographs
Jolie’s Emails and Privilege Battle
The $35 million revelation is only one piece of a a lot bigger struggle over Angelina Jolie’s personal communications. Pitt’s authorized crew is urgent the courtroom to compel Jolie at hand over tons of of emails, texts, and inner correspondence they consider are important to proving she deliberately broken the worth of Château Miraval and his enterprise pursuits. Jolie’s legal professionals have pushed again exhausting, claiming these communications are protected by attorney-client privilege.
One of many unsealed emails, dated Could 2021, has drawn specific consideration. In that message, Jolie wrote to her enterprise supervisor about her mounting nervousness over her private {and professional} life:
“I have to take away all stress. I actually really feel I get sick from fear. So I would love us to debate higher help. And never persevering with relationships that you simply see trigger me stress.”
She additionally referenced her brother, James Haven Voight, including:
“Monetary conditions like Jamie the place I simply give and provides and do not even get a thanks… is simply improper.”
Jolie’s lawyer, Paul Murphy, has accused Pitt of utilizing discovery calls for to “invade her privileged communications” and “harass and management” his former spouse. “Mr. Pitt’s reply transient doesn’t handle our arguments and continues to depend on conjecture and hypothesis — all for the aim of invading her privileged communications along with her legal professionals,” Murphy stated in an announcement. “This as soon as once more confirms that this lawsuit is the manifestation of Mr. Pitt’s years-long effort to harass and management Angelina.”
Pitt’s aspect insists the emails might assist show that Jolie’s sale to the Stoli Group was orchestrated to hurt him personally and financially. They’ve additionally highlighted inner messages suggesting Jolie’s advisers nervous that her public feedback may “disparage BP” — shorthand for Brad Pitt — and injury the Miraval model. These claims, Pitt’s legal professionals argue, go to the center of his allegation that the sale was made “with malice.”
The courtroom has scheduled a listening to on the invention dispute for December 17, 2025, the place a decide is anticipated to rule on whether or not Jolie should launch the remaining paperwork. The complete trial over Miraval and the $35 million damages declare is about for February 2027, almost 5 years after Pitt first filed his lawsuit.
