Inside Brad and Angelina's bitter legal battle over Chateau Miraval winery - as actress sells her share to Russian billionaire: Pitt tried making Jolie sign NDA before divorce talks broke down and she sold $67m stake in winery, report says

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Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Written by Daily mail

          Shocking new details have been revealed about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's seemingly never-ending legal battles stemming from their acrimonious 2016 split. In a new article for Vanity Fair's July/August edition, special correspondent Mark Seal delved into Brangelina's dispute over their once-beloved French winery, Chateau Miraval. The couple bought the vineyard in 2008 for around 25 million Euros and became 50/50 owners of the property as well as its wine making enterprise. Among those who spoke to Vanity Fair are the couple's former head of security, winemakers, real estate brokers and others with intimate knowledge of the couple's time in the south of France. The report notes that in 2021, Jolie, 47, and Pitt, 58, appeared to have come to an agreement in which he would purchase her half of the business. The deal stalled when Pitt tried to insert an NDA that would prevent the Maleficent star from publicly talking about their infamous argument in front of their kids on a private jet in 2016, according to the Vanity Fair piece. Representatives for Pitt have maintained that in fact it was Jolie who first broached the idea of an NDA, when the 12 Monkeys star began negotiating about the contents of the agreement, that's when Jolie backed away from the deal. DailyMail.com has reached out to Angelina Jolie's representatives for comment on this story.  Not long afterwards, Jolie sold her share to Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, who has been designated as an 'oligarch' by the US Treasury Department. Pitt and Jolie met in 2005 on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith, playing a bored married couple who discover they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill one another.They married at Chateau Miraval in 2014 and parented six kids – three biological and three adopted – who are now aged between 14 and 21. The Vanity Fair piece notes that cracks began appearing in the marriage in 2015. Those tensions reached boiling point as the family were returning to the US from Chateau Miraval in 2016. 'By September 14, 2016, tensions between and had been boiling for about a year. They tried to keep their arguments between themselves and had made a point to never argue in front of the children. Until the plane,' Seal wrote. The couple's head of security Gary Bradbury told the magazine that in 15 years working Pitt, he never saw him drunk. On the day of the flight from Nice, France, to Los Angeles that included a refueling stop in Minnesota, Pitt was 'drinking quite a bit.' 'Brad was drinking, and the confrontation got out of hand. He was absolutely wrong in how he behaved but immediately apologized and acknowledged that he had crossed a line,' another source said. 'He will always regret [it], and right away took steps to address this and try to make amends,' the source added. Following the incident, Pitt became sober.   Jolie filed for divorce shortly after that incident and a long legal battle, primarily over the custody of their six children, ensued.The pair were also in dispute over the fate their Chateau Miraval property.
         When it looked as though an agreement was in place, Jolie pulled back when she learned about the NDA. Vanity Fair quotes a source close to Pitt alleging that the NDA was just related to the winery 'to ensure the seller doesn’t damage the value of the asset after being paid for it.' Pitt alleged, through lawyers, that the real reason Jolie walked away from the deal was because she was angry about separate custody ruling which had granted him more access. Jolie's lawyers also sought to correct an unfair depiction of her role in the success of the wine brand during their ownership, claiming she had invested $60 million into the company. A Pitt-related source said her investment was more like $38 million.  It was earlier reported that Pitt learned that estranged wife had sold half of their property and business to a 'Russian oligarch' from a press release. The couple had a 'mutual and binding commitment' to the $160 million Chateau Miraval business and agreed not to sell up without the other's permission. According to Vanity Fair, Jolie says that 'no such agreement ever existed.' Pitt discovered his ex-wife had 'secretly' sold her 50 percent stake when a 2021 press release announced that he had new business partners, according to the actor's lawyers. The buyer was part of a 'Russia-affiliated' vodka conglomerate headed by Shefler, who would use his new relationship with the A-lister to enhance and improve his reputation, court filings alleged. 'For Jolie, the sale was a business transaction she had every right to make. ‘In an effort to preserve her own mental health and well-being, she looked for and found what she believed would be a good business partner for Pitt,' a source told Vanity Fair.While Pitt saw the sale as a 'betrayal.''It is not a coincidence that she sold her interest in Miraval to an adversarial party, and part of the family home to a stranger, right after a judge granted a huge win: 50-50 custody,' a source close to Pitt told Vanity Fair. The Fight Club star attempted to fight Jolie's sale to Shefler. By selling instead to Shefler, Jolie linked the Chateau Miraval to Russia and Vladimir Putin - hurting the brand perhaps irreparably, Pitt alleges. In a counterclaim Jolie accused Pitt of forcing her into selling to his company, Mondo Bongo, and spreading lies that Shefler's connections and dealings with the Kremlin.
         Pitt was further accused of hiding assets and using profits from the wine on a swimming pool and ornate staircase that was rebuilt multiple times.  'The only thing that Jolie's Cross-Complaint gets right is that she and Pitt purchased Château Miraval as a 'loving home for their six children,' Pitt's lawyers protested in documents filed in 2022. 'As set forth in Plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint, Pitt and Jolie had a mutual and binding commitment, reflected by their conduct and statements to one another over time, that they would hold Miraval together and, if the time came, that they would sell their interests separately only with the other's consent.'The filing said Pitt trusted Jolie and thus 'devoted his time and his resources to renovating the estate and building a highly successful wine business.''Jolie, though supportive of Pitt's efforts on behalf of the family, did none of the work necessary for Miraval's success,' the filing goes on.'Instead, she allowed Pitt to pour money and sweat equity into the business in reliance on her promise to hold Miraval together, as well as the contractual rights her holding company Nouvel owed his. By the time of their separation, Pitt's investment exceeded Jolie's by nearly $50 million.' The legal battle apparently continues to this day, with French authorities investigating the business, report VF. The Vanity Fair article ends by noting that since September 2016, nobody from either Pitt or Jolie families have returned to stay at the property.

 source : Daily Mail