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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Maddy Mussen

The Brangelina empire: how the multi-millionaire divorcees are splitting their wealth

If any two people suit the term multi-hyphenate, it's Brangelina.

Even before the pair were together, they shared a vision greater than the realms of acting. Jolie served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations for 11 years from 2001 and Pitt co-authored an architecture book back in 2000. This philanthropy and side-hustling continued throughout their relationship, and now the pair are running their own brands: Brad with his skincare line, Le Domaine, and winery, Miraval, and Jolie with her new fashion line, Atelier Jolie. During their marriage, they also amassed a substantial property portfolio, which has become a sticking point during their ongoing, seven-year-long divorce.

Back in 2015, when they were still together, Jolie and Pitt were worth an estimated $385 million (£307m), according to Forbes. Now, the pair couldn't be more separate — so who's got what, and how much are they both worth in 2023?

Miraval

When Pitt and Jolie called it quits, it became clear where his main interests lay: in wine and wellness. Pitt began his very public wellness journey in 2016, when he got sober and spent a year and a half attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Then, ironically, his interests turned to wine. While the pair's purchase of Château Miraval, the winery in the South of France, was very much a joint decision initially, it quickly became Pitt's pet project after the divorce.

Château Miraval in Provence, South of France (AFP via Getty Images)

Jolie decided to sell her shares to a Russian oligarch, a decision Pitt and his lawyers later called "vindictive," and claimed was in response to an adverse custody ruling. As a result, Pitt decided to sue, with legal filings claiming that Jolie "pursued and then consummated the purported sale in secret, purposely keeping Pitt in the dark, and knowingly violating Pitt’s contractual rights". The lawsuit also alleged that Jolie contributed "nothing to Miraval’s success".

The property, which was bought in 2011 for €35m (£30m), is now worth an estimated €140m (£122m). The revenues of its signature wine, Miraval Côtes de Provence rosé, reached $50m (£40m) in 2021.

In response to Pitt's lawsuit, Jolie explained her decision to sell was due to the vineyard's innate connection to alcohol, something which she alleged contributed to the end of their marriage. "I was shaken by the recent imagery that was released to sell the alcohol. I find it irresponsible and not something that I would want the children to see. It reminded me of painful times,” Jolie wrote in an email to Pitt to explain her reasoning.

Miraval Rose 2012 (Getty Images)

“I cannot begin to express how upsetting it is for me to have to reach this point,” Jolie continued. “Your dream for your relationship to the business and the alcohol is your own and you’ve made it painfully clear. I wish you all the best with the business… but Miraval died for me in September 2016, and everything I have seen in the years since has sadly confirmed that."

Jolie's company Nouvel then filed a $250m (£199m) lawsuit against Pitt, claiming that he had purposefully tried to shut her out of the winery to stop her receiving profits after their split. The lawsuit alleged that Pitt “hatched and executed a plan to secretly move assets from Château Miraval [...] to companies owned by him and his friends, thereby devaluing Jolie’s interest” as well as "squandering" money on "vanity projects" like swimming pools and expensive Croatian stone walls.

Then, to make things all the more messy, Pitt claimed that Jolie's team had gone silent on him during the sale, to which she claimed that his team tried to get her to sign an NDA. As of today, the lawsuit is still ongoing, having entered mediation over the summer.

Le Domaine and God's True Cashmere

As well as wine, Pitt also discovered a newfound love of wellness in his post-Jolie era. This came to a peak in 2022, when he announced he was launching a genderless skincare brand, Le Domaine, on top of his cashmere line, God's True Cashmere. Pitt started the latter in collaboration with "guru" and jewellery designer Sat Hari in 2019.

With Le Domaine, he said he was inspired by his ex, Gwyneth Paltrow, and her wellness brand goop, as well as the natural surroundings of Chateau Miraval. "I remember reading about the health properties of grape skins as something we wanted to investigate," Pitt told Vogue. A one-time purchase of Le Domaine's "complete routine", consisting of a cleansing emulsion, serum and cream, costs £428.

Brad Pitt flogs his skincare line, Le Domaine (Le Domaine)

It seems to be doing well, having expanded to the UK and Spain, and now more widely in the US. This is thanks to a deal with Bluemercury, where it is available online and in 21 of its 178 US stores.

Similarly, God's True Cashmere is thriving, with WWD reporting "surges" in sales and major expansions, despite the fact one of its cashmere shirts will set you back more than £2,000. In Selfridges, where it is stocked in the UK, a cashmere blanket costs £2,235.

Properties across the globe

Jolie and Pitt co-owned a number of properties while together, including Chateau Miraval, where they got married in 2014. Miraval is now entirely owned by Pitt, thanks to Jolie's stake sellout in 2021. While Pitt visits the French property, he spends most of his time in California. For much of the past 30 years, Pitt has resided in a Craftsman-style property in Hollywood Hills, which he paid just $1.7m (£1.36m) for in 1994. This year he parted ways with the property, narrowly dodging Los Angeles' mansion tax and raking in a tidy $37.3m (£29.9m) profit with his $39m (£31m) sale.

Along with Chateau Miraval, Jolie and Pitt also co-owned a $3.5m (£2.8m) house in New Orleans’s French Quarter (Getty Images)

Along with Chateau Miraval, Jolie and Pitt also co-owned a $3.5m (£2.8m) house in New Orleans’s French Quarter. They bought this in 2006 as they began charity work in the city after Hurricane Katrina. A decade later, amid their early separation, the pair sold the property for $4.9m (£3.9m).

The pair are also known to have purchased a residence in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City, which is rumoured to be the first place they stayed as a couple, as well as a villa in Mallorca. It is unknown if they have retained these properties.

As for where they live now, Jolie is known to have a property in Los Feliz, in LA, near Pitt. However, she recently told Vogue she was apartment hunting with her son Pax, looking for places in New York, which is also where her studio for Atelier Jolie is based.

Her Los Feliz property is situated in Laughlin Park and comprises a 2.1-acre estate, with a historic Beaux-Arts mansion that was built in 1913. The 7,500-square-foot main house boasts six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, with a grand foyer, mahogany-panelled dining room, library and pool. Jolie's neighbours include Natalie Portman, Kristen Stewart, will.i.am and Casey Affleck.

Pitt, for his part, has swapped houses with the buyer of his Craftsman property, heiress Aileen Getty, and is still living in Los Feliz, just slightly downsized. His new house, which is known as Steel House locally, has just three bedrooms, a considerable switch-up from his previous estate, which included an ice skating rink, skate park, ballroom, home cinema and up to four guest houses. The new property may be a more humble abode, but it does boast a humongous L-shaped pool, as well as a hot tub, sauna and picturesque tropical landscaping. All in all, it's a much cosier home.

Atelier Jolie

Jolie's studio is the former home of legendary artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Getty)

In the aforementioned Vogue interview, Jolie shared details on her new fashion pursuit, Atelier Jolie, which is less an outright fashion brand and more, well, this: "A space of collaboration, a kind of cultural centre-meets-design workshop that combines tailoring and upcycling services with a gallery space for local artisans and a café run in partnership with refugee organisations".

Jolie's studio is the former home of legendary artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, which she hopes will inspire creativity. “I don’t want to be a big fashion designer," she told Vogue. "I want to build a house for other people to become that.” While Atelier Jolie is still in the planning stage, if Jolie's ex-husband's extracurricular pursuits are anything to go by, she's set for success.

Net worth

While Brangelina were worth a whopping $385m when they were still together, their net worths now are hardly inconsiderable (AFP via Getty Images)

While Brangelina were worth a whopping $385m when they were still together, their net worths now are hardly inconsiderable. This year, Pitt made it back into Forbes' Top 10 Highest-Paid Entertainers List for the first time since 2009, but it's largely due to his $300m (£239m) payout thanks to selling his production company, Plan B. His recent roles in Bullet Train, Babylon and The Lost City earned him an additional $30m (£24m).

Jolie's exact net worth in 2023 is unknown, but it's estimated to be around $120m (£96m). Forbes' most recent estimate of her earnings in 2020 calculated that she had made roughly $35.5m (£28.3m) that year alone.

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