`Battle royale’: Hollywood actor Brad Pitt drags ex-wife Angelina Jolie to court over property dispute

Call it a battle royale. Hollywood actor Brad Pitt has dragged ex-wife Angelina Jolie to court for allegedly selling off her share of their French estate, Château Miraval.

Media reports quoted Pitt saying that his former couple had agreed that neither of them would sell their share of the Château and its profitable vineyard without agreement from the other.

Pitt, according to media reports, said Jolie sold off her share to Russian businessman Yuri Shefler without his permission. As per the court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, “Jolie consummated the purported sale without Pitt’s knowledge, denying Pitt the consent right she owed him and the right of the first refusal her business entity owed him. She sold her interest with the knowledge and intention that Shefler and his affiliates would seek to control the business to which Pitt had devoted himself and to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval.”

According to Pitt, the multimillion-dollar vineyard business was developed into one of the world’s top producers of rosé wine by him only, regardless that the property was bought as a “family business.” But “Jolie stopped contributing altogether” for the renovations after 2013 and claimed a reservation to the alcohol-based business in January 2021 while Pitt “continued to invest millions of dollars … [funding] roughly 70% of the couple’s investment in Miraval.”

However, in October 2021, the wine division of the Stoli Group, Tenute del Mondo, announced it purchased Jolie’s 50 percent stake in the estate and the wines it produces. The business is controlled by Russian businessman Shefler.

The sale was a surprise to Pitt, who now claims he is deprived of using the Château as his private home and can no longer oversee the company that he helped to create and invested millions of dollars into.

Even though their divorce is finalized, the former couple is still embroiled in court battles over child custody and their considerable assets.