Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt Winery Lawsuit and Abuse Allegations, Explained

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been fighting in court longer than they were married and almost for as long as they were Brangelina—and the details and nuances of their legal battle are often murky.

The couple, who split in September 2016 after two years of marriage and another 10 years together, have been at war over custody of their six children (several of whom have aged out of the process since the divorce was initiated) as well as ownership of their Chateau Miraval winery and estate. Pitt's camp claims that Jolie sold her shares in a breach of an unwritten, unspoken agreement, while Jolie denies the allegations.

While that sounds relatively simple on its face, there's a lot of legalese, smoke and mirrors—plus a reported $10 million and counting in lawyers' fees on Pitt's side alone—to navigate to understand what's actually happening.

Related: Why Brad Pitt's Net Worth Isn't What It Seems

What is the legal battle between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

Simply put, it's complicated—and it's separate from their divorce, which has yet to be finalized. Context matters. Brace yourself, because there is a lot going on here.

In February 2022, Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie and her limited liability company, Nouvel, for selling her shares in their Chateau Miraval winery to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group. Jolie had reportedly tried to sell her shares in the winery, which were under the LLC, to Pitt for quite a while before he sued, but Pitt allegedly refused to consent to any of her proposals. As a means of essentially getting the business and her ex-husband out of her hair, Jolie requested permission from a judge to sell her shares, and that permission was granted.

Pitt alleged that Jolie sold her shares in secret and deliberately attempted to harm his reputation, with Pitt alleging that the owner of the Stoli Group, billionaire Yuri Shefler, has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shefler has denied this. Further, The New York Times reports that Stoli has been produced in Latvia since 2002, with its headquarters in Luxembourg; some of the company's bottle caps are manufactured in Ukraine. Shefler lives in Switzerland. Pitt also alleged that Shefler and Stoli Group approached him previously to buy Jolie's shares and that he rejected their offers; Jolie's camp said she was never informed of the prior proposals.

Pitt also alleged in his suit that he and Jolie had an agreement in which neither party would sell their Miraval shares without consent of the other. According to Pitt, the agreement was implicit based on their "words and conduct."

Related: Brad Pitt Talks Sobriety and Attending Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings

That September, Nouvel, now under Stoli Group, countersued Pitt and his Mondo Bongo company for $250 million, alleging financial mismanagement and wasting the company's funds on "vanity projects." The suit also accuses Pitt of trying to transfer Miraval assets to a friend for free. In the cross-complaint, Nouvel's attorneys point out that nowhere in Pitt and Jolie's contracts or other communications—including their personal communications and their communications through lawyers, consultants, managers and other teams—was there any mention of said agreement that Pitt insists Jolie has violated. Further, Jolie presented emails between her and Pitt's respective advisors from the time they purchased Miraval that show her team asked for directives in writing in the case she and Pitt ever split up and that Pitt refused to entertain the idea.

In October 2022, Jolie filed an additional counterclaim against Pitt, which was obtained by The New York Times. In the suit, Jolie claims that part of why she and Pitt couldn't agree about selling her shares was because he demanded "a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt's physical and emotional abuse of her and their children."

The Los Angeles Times reported in April 2024 that Jolie's team filed another motion requesting Pitt's communications regarding an "all-encompassing" NDA. The filing notes that Pitt's lawsuit as a whole was part of his "unrelenting efforts to control and financially drain" Jolie and "attempting to hide his history of abuse, control and coverup" the allegations against him.

Related: Angelina Jolie's Son Pax Gives His Unfiltered Thoughts About Brad Pitt

What are the Brad Pitt abuse allegations and what do they (and the plane incident) have to do with his winery lawsuit against Angelina Jolie?

While Brangelina's divorce still isn't finalized, the dirty details of their split are relevant to the ongoing Miraval lawsuit. In the April 2024 filing obtained by The Los Angeles Times, Jolie's attorneys allege that Pitt's refusal to sell the winery "nearly broke" the Maleficent star. "If that sale had been completed, this lawsuit never would have happened," the motion reads. "But at the last minute, Pitt 'stepped back' from his agreement to buy Jolie's interest in Miraval, and the deal collapsed. The question at the heart of this case—and at the center of this motion—is why."

Jolie's lawyers allege that the reason is centered on a sealed motion from March 2021 in their ongoing custody case that included domestic violence allegations.

"When Jolie filed the evidence in the custody suit, she was careful to file it under seal so that no member of the public could see it," the filing reads in part. "But Jolie's sealed filing, which included emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony, and other evidence, caused Pitt to fear that the information could eventually become public." The motion alleges that Pitt committed acts of domestic abuse against Jolie before the September 2016 flight on a private plane that resulted with her filing for divorce days later.

"While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family's September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles," the filing notes, "This flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well."

The FBI and the Department of Children and Family Service reportedly investigated the incident and closed a probe without a criminal charges in November 2016. Details of the allegations against Pitt from the flight went public in August 2022 when a Freedom of Information Act request Jolie filed privately and anonymously was leaked to POLITICO.

Related: What Can We Learn from the Jolie-Pitt Divorce Journey?

In the FBI report, Jolie accused Pitt of grabbing her by the head, pushing her into a bathroom wall and repeatedly punching the ceiling of the plane. When one of their children called Pitt a name, Jolie alleged that Pitt lunged at the child as if to attack; Jolie claimed she jumped up and grabbed Pitt around his neck to protect the child. At that time, Jolie alleges, Pitt threw himself backward, sending Jolie hurtling into seats behind them and injuring her elbow and back. After the plane landed, Jolie says she suggested taking the kids to a hotel to rest, at which point Pitt shoved her again and refused. The report also claims that Pitt poured beer and wine on Jolie and their kids.

Rolling Stone reports that part of the likely difficulty for the FBI in filing charges is that both Jolie and Pitt were injured, as she had a rug burn injury on her arm and he had a scratch that she said may have come from her. The April 2024 filing states that Jolie declined to pursue criminal charges against Pitt "as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused." The motion also alleges that Pitt refused domestic violence counseling after the incident.

POLITICO noted that the anonymous filer, later revealed to be Jolie, had her attorney request that the filing be placed under seal—meaning Jolie did not make it public, nor did she want it to go public—but that the request was denied.

Pitt's attorneys told TMZ that he never choked or lunged at any of his children during the flight, adding, "Brad has owned everything he's responsible for from day one, unlike the other side, but he's not going to own anything he didn't do. He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation. Thankfully, the various public authorities the other side has tried to use against him over the past six years have made their own independent decisions. Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done."

Jolie hasn't spoken publicly about the abuse she allegedly suffered, though she did allude to "the last decade" being difficult for her in a September 2021 interview with The Guardian. She has also advocated for domestic violence causes in recent years, including a trip to Washington, D.C., to support the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.

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Related: Angelina Jolie Addresses the 'Healing' Her Family Needed After Brad Pitt Divorce

Where does the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie lawsuit stand now?

In March 2024, documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight revealed that a judge dismissed five of seven of Pitt's claims against Jolie with prejudice, including tort claims, meaning regardless of the verdict in the rest of the claims, Jolie won't have to pay Pitt damages. Their dismissal with prejudice also means Pitt won't be able to relitigate them later.

The two remaining claims hinge on the unspoken, unwritten, implicit agreement over the winery shares, as well as quantum meruit (generally defined as a reasonable payment for services rendered) for Pitt's efforts with Miraval.

Jolie's lawyer told Entertainment Tonight in a statement, "Angelina truly harbors no ill-will toward Mr. Pitt, and hopes he will now release her from his frivolous lawsuit, stop his relentless attacks, and join her in helping their family heal in private."

In a response to Jolie's team's April 2024 filing, TMZ reported that Pitt's lawyers demanded copies of other NDAs the Girl, Interrupted star signed to show that the one he proposed wasn't "onerous" or "broad" and was relatively boiler plate for celebrities. Pitt's legal team argued that the goal was for neither party to disparage the other in the press as to avoid damaging the Miraval business. That said, it's important to remember that the only reason any of this is public right now is because Pitt sued Jolie and her buyers—not the other way around.

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