Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?

Nestled among the rolling hills of the French countryside in the small village of Correns sits Château Miraval, the centuries-old 1,200-acre property and purchased for $28.4 million in 2008. For the A-list megastars, the sprawling estate was an idyllic escape from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. It was a place where their young children played with goats and chickens and rode dirt bikes and where, in August 2014, Jolie and Pitt exchanged vows in front of 20 guests in a private stone chapel.

A little more than a decade later, the winery is at the center of Pitt and Jolie’s seemingly never-ending feud. A legal battle that initially began after Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016 over custody of their six children (they share Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne) shifted to a tug-of-war over the château when Pitt, 60, sued Jolie, 49, for selling her stake to a Russian billionaire in February 2022. The acrimonious exes have been going back and forth ever since, slinging mud through attorneys and legal filings, and dragging out what has become one of the nastiest celebrity divorces of all time.

On July 18, Jolie’s lawyer told Us Weekly the Eternals actress has asked her ex to withdraw his lawsuit “and end the fighting and finally put their family on a clear path toward healing.” While a source close to the matter says “all Jolie wants is peace,” two additional sources exclusively share in the latest issue of Us it’s unlikely Pitt will back down.

“Brad has no plans to drop the suit,” says one source, noting that the Bullet Train actor feels doing so will only prolong their legal drama in the end. “Brad knows there will be no resolution. He has nothing to gain by dropping it.”

Us WeeklyConstant Conflict

Eight months after Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie for selling her share of Miraval to Russian oligarch , Jolie’s former company, Nouvel, filed a $250 million cross-complaint claiming Pitt wanted to retain full control of the winery as revenge for their split and their subsequent child custody battle.

While lawyers for Pitt say the former couple had agreed not to offload their stakes to a third party without the other’s consent, a source close to the matter tells Us: “There is no contract, written or verbal, that Pitt can point to that said if he refused to purchase her shares that she can’t sell to anyone else. In fact, Pitt is the one who said they would not need a contract for that.”

Jolie’s legal team claimed the actress intended to sell her share of the vineyard to Pitt until he insisted she sign an “expansive” NDA (nondisclosure agreement) prohibiting her from speaking out about “Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.” (In her legal documents, Jolie described events she alleges took place on board a private jet five days before she filed for divorce in which she said a drunken Pitt “grabbed [her] by the head” and “shook her” and poured wine and beer on her and their children. In a motion filed in April, attorneys for Jolie claim Pitt’s “history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip.”)

In May, a judge ordered Jolie to provide eight years’ worth of NDAs that she’s used with third parties. (Pitt’s legal team is looking to prove his request to have Jolie sign one is a common business practice.) “The issue of NDAs has become a key battleground in the dispute,” Pitt’s attorney, , tells Us. “Jolie claims she backed out of selling her stake to Pitt after he asked her to sign an ‘unconscionable’ privacy agreement as part of the business deal — a defense Pitt insists is undermined by her own routine use of NDAs.”

Related: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Ups and Downs Through the YearsBrad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been locked in a messy court battle ever since she filed for divorce in September 2016, but the pair were not always at odds. The Oscar winners allegedly fell for each other while filming the 2005 action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The origination of their relationship instantly caused […]

Jolie’s attorney refutes that. “For Pitt to equate common NDAs they both routinely use covering confidential information employees learn at work with him attempting to cover up his history of criminal abuse is shameful,” Murphy tells Us.

In a July 25 filing, Jolie’s lawyers said Pitt’s NDA was “specifically designed to force her silence” and that “evidence will show why Jolie’s sale to Pitt fell apart over Pitt’s demand to expand the NDA to cover his years of abuse, denials and cover-up,” adding that Jolie plans to use “Pitt’s own contemporaneous communications describing and demonstrating exactly the behavior he later sought to cover.” (The Babylon actor contends he didn’t use the NDA to attempt to cover up any abuse.)

A Pitt source says Jolie’s side has turned the war over Miraval into a rehashing of their divorce case. “This was a simple business dispute, but sadly, this legal attack is just the latest example of [Jolie] harming the entire family by making it personal.” Says the source close to the matter: “Suing Jolie for $67 million because she refused to sign an NDA covering up his criminal abuse is not a ‘simple business dispute.’ Pitt is the one suing Angelina yet he somehow thinks he can say she’s attacking him.”

Related: Photos of Angelina Jolie With Her 6 Kids Through the YearsAngelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids have grown up in the spotlight. The former couple started dating in 2005, three years after the actress adopted her son, Maddox, from Cambodia. Pitt then accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia in 2005 to adopt Zahara, and he legally adopted both kids in 2006. The Oscar winners went on to […]

Jolie feels Pitt should back off. “[Jolie] did not want to be in business with her ex-husband, especially one involving alcohol. She simply exchanged the asset for cash. The money is for the children,” says the source close to the matter, adding, “She never pressed charges, she left [Pitt] all their properties, and she’s the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place. Yet he was not satisfied and still he sued her and continues to attack her in the press today.”

Expert Take

There’s little benefit to Pitt if he dismisses the lawsuit, says business litigation attorney (who doesn’t represent Pitt or Jolie). “He will either have to work with Shefler to operate the winery or sell his shares to him.” (Ahmadshahi says it’s “unlikely” Pitt can invalidate Jolie’s sale.) The only upside, Ahmadshahi tells Us, “is that there would be an end to the controversy, and Brad and Angelina can move on with their lives.”

Gareth Cattermole/Getty ImagesRipple Effect

The collateral damage continues to pile up. On her 18th birthday in May, Pitt’s daughter Shiloh filed to legally drop his surname. On July 22, Shiloh’s lawyer said she’d made the “significant” decision to change her name “following painful events.” (The hearing in her case was delayed until August 19 “because of a clerical error,” Levine said on July 29.) “Brad has no intention of sharing any public reaction to Shiloh dropping Pitt from her last name,” says the first source, “but it breaks his heart.”

At this point all but Knox appear to currently be using Jolie’s last name. There’s no indication Pitt has had contact with Pax since he was hospitalized on July 29 after crashing his e-bike in L.A. (A friend of the Jolie family told Us on August 4 that Pax — who “suffered complex trauma” — had been released from the ICU and was beginning “a long road of recovery and physical therapy.”) In June, an insider told Us the kids have “struggled to forgive and connect with Brad since the divorce,” adding, “Once Brad left it was very hard for them to see him go to war with Angelina. They’ve really struggled with that.”

Related: Hollywood's Ugliest Divorces: From Johnny and Amber to Erika and TomThroughout their time in the spotlight, some A-listers — including Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Madonna and Tom Cruise, among others — have found themselves involved in pretty messy divorces. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard finalized their divorce in 2017, but their relationship drama continued on with a nasty court battle after they’ve both accused each other of verbal and […] No End in Sight

It’s been a long — and very public — ordeal. “Brad’s extremely private when it comes to his personal life,” says the first source. “He goes to great lengths to not be photographed by paparazzi, even taking extreme measures such as driving to his mailbox at the end of the driveway just to get his mail. Angelina’s a nepo baby,” adds the source. “She’s used to being in the spotlight, so she knows how to navigate the media. Brad prefers laying low.”

Both Pitt and Jolie have found distraction in their work. Their new films — Pitt’s Wolfs and her upcoming biopic Maria, in which she plays opera singer — are both set to screen at the Venice Film Festival in late August. A source confirms schedules are being arranged to ensure they don’t cross paths.

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While Jolie — who’s remained single — focuses on the kids, Pitt has found solace in his girlfriend of over a year, 34-year-old jewelry executive . They were photographed smiling and holding hands at the Grand Prix race in Northampton, England, on July 7. “Ines has been a rock for Brad this past year,” says the first source, “particularly during these past few weeks with Shiloh and all of the ongoing legal drama involving the winery. It’s obviously a lot to deal with.”

With reporting by Brody Brown, Travis Cronin, Sarah Jones, Kat Pettibone & Andrea Simpson

For more on Brad and Angelina, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.

In this articleAngelina JolieBrad Pitt

Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?

Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?

Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?

Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?

Brad and Angelina's Bitter Legal Battle: How Did it Come to This?