Brad Pitt sues Angelina Jolie for selling share in French wine estate to hostile Russian billionaire

<p>
Brad Pitt is suing ex-wife Angelina Jolie over what he alleges is an unauthorized sale of her stake in Chateau Miraval, the wine estate in the south of France, that the two had bought and where they got married, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.</p>
<p>
A civil case filed on Thursday in Los Angeles says Jolie used legal means to skirt their contractual terms and sold to an “aggressive third-party competitor” — a conglomerate owned by Russian vodka billionaire Yuri Shefler — that Pitt says is trying to take over his Miraval rosé business.</p>
<p>
Pitt claims the couple had "agreed they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without the other's consent."</p>
<p>
He is now seeking a jury trial to get Jolie’s sale of her share scrapped</p>
<p>
The couple, who met on the set of the 2005 movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,”  married in 2014. Though the two became legally single in 2019, their contentious divorce proceedings are still going on.</p>
<p>
The lawsuit alleges that Jolie stopped contributing to Miraval long ago,  while Pitt invested money and sweat equity into the wine business, building it into a profitable company.</p>
<p>
It describes the vineyard as a "small, unprofitable wine business" that was "in need of renovation" prior to the couple's purchase in 2008.</p>
<p>
The pair paid "approximately 25 million euros ($28 million)," with Pitt contributing 60 percent and Jolie the remaining 40 percent.</p>
<p>
But Pitt went on to pay for renovations and roped in Marc Perrin, one of France's top winemakers, to help transform the business into a leading rose wine producer, but Jolie had no involvement in these efforts, the lawsuit claims.</p>
<p>
Revenues of the company are reported to have shot up from around $3 million in 2013 to more than $50 million last year and the vineyard has become famous for its sparkling wine.</p>