Angelina Jolie has no plans to visit the winery she once owned with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt.
The exes have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2022 over Jolie’s sale of her shares of their winery in France, Château Miraval, to alcohol company Stoli Group.
In his lawsuit, Pitt, 61, accused Jolie, 50, of reneging on their deal not to sell their shares without the other’s consent. In response, the Maria actor filed a countersuit in September 2022, accusing Pitt of conducting a “vindictive campaign” against her since their 2016 divorce filing.
The legal battle continued on Monday with Jolie filing court documents, obtained by People, in Los Angeles. In a statement, the Maleficent star claimed she has avoided going to the vineyard for years.
“To this day, the children and I have never again set foot on the property, given its connection to the painful events leading to the divorce,” she wrote. “Post-separation, I immediately began to look for a new house for me and our children, initially renting a home while looking for a more stable solution.”
“Because I wanted to ensure that Brad remained an important part of our children’s lives, I looked to buy a property near his home,” Jolie, who split from Pitt in 2016, continued. “At the time, my savings were tied up in Miraval, and I had not asked Brad for alimony or any other financial support.”
She also wrote that after she and Pitt separated, she left him “control (and full residency) of our family homes in Los Angeles and at Miraval, without compensation, which I hoped would make him calmer in his dealings with me after a difficult and traumatic period.”
A source close to the matter also shared a comment to The Independent, saying: “This is a commercial dispute that has nothing to do with the divorce proceedings, this filing is one side trying to conflate the two and justify the sale of Miraval.”
The filing came a year after Pitt asked for the judge to strike down Jolie’s motion asking him to release third-party communications about his allegedly abusive behavior towards her during an infamous 2016 private jet voyage. The Fight Club actor’s legal team slammed Jolie’s request as an “intrusive” and “sensationalist fishing expedition.”
In July, Pitt filed a motion asking his ex-wife to produce private emails she exchanged with her legal team and Stoli Group’s Alexey Oliynik, a Russian oligarch. Jolie’s lawyer declined the request and claimed her messages are covered by the attorney-client privilege.
In the new documents, Jolie is also seeking $33,000 in legal fees from her ex-husband, according to USA TODAY. She further challenged Pitt’s previous request for her emails and documents discussing “legal advice or legal strategy,” noting that “these communications were to be confidential.”
The former couple share six children: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 16.
